Chocolate Guinness Cake

Or in this case...cupcakes! :)

I first made this cake and posted about it here a couple of years ago. It is just as good now as it was then so I thought I would share it again for St. Patrick's Day. The recipe was originally posted at Simply Recipes in March of 2012 and is an adaption of a recipe by Nigella Lawson.

Chocolate Guinness Cake

1 cup stout or porter beer                    **Click here to print this recipe**   
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch springform pan and line the bottom with a round of parchment or wax paper and then lightly grease the paper. If making cupcakes, line the pan(s) with paper liners AND lightly spray them with cooking spray.
In a large saucepan, heat the beer and butter over medium-high heat until the butter has melted. Add the cocoa powder and sugars and whisk together. Take off the heat and allow to come to room temperature. (Only takes a few minutes)
In another bowl, beat together the sour cream, eggs and vanilla until very, very well combined. Add to the butter-beer mixture and whisk together.
In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add to the beer-butter mixture and whisk together until it just comes together. Pour into the prepared pan and give the pan a few short drops onto the counter to remove any air bubbles. If making cupcakes, fill each well three-quarters full with batter.
Bake cake for 50 to 60 minutes, cupcakes for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool on a wire rack. Run a knife around the edge to separate the cake from the pan, if necessary, and remove the ring from the springform pan.
Frost as desired.

This recipe makes a LOT of batter and would easily make 30 to 36 cupcakes.

I frosted the cupcakes with a classic cream cheese frosting but a chocolate buttercream frosting would also be very good. Here is a photo of the cake I made in 2012.

Sharing with the Down Home Blog Hop, Rurality Blog Hop, From The Farm Blog Hop and Farmgirl Friday.

What I Have Been Up To...

...in between working on my Chicken Applique quilt, getting seeds started in my little greenhouse for this summer, volunteering at the Tombstone Art Gallery, participating in a Farmgirl Craft Swap and regular day-to-day cookin', cleanin' and clothes washin'.

These are 100% Mohair cinches hand woven by little ol' me and available for purchase on my new Lazy J Bar C Facebook page here. Mohair is the lustrous and strong hair of the Angora goat and is a traditional fiber for cinches. It's strong, it breathes and it wicks moisture away from the horse; whereas wool is a natural fiber but holds the moisture in rather than absorbing it and acrylic fibers don't breathe. Plus, it's a beautiful and functional piece of handmade 'wearable art' for the horse.

If you are in the market for a new cinch or know a horse lover who might be interested, I hope you will check out my handmade Mohair cinches. They also make nice gifts.  :)

P.S. I will post an update on my Chicken Applique quilt soon. The back is finished and part of the quilting is done. YAY!!

Sharing with Farmgirl Friday.

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Cookies

What is your favorite cookie? Chocolate chip? Peanut butter? Oatmeal? Why not just combine them all in one cookie! :)

We were out of cookies the other day (gasp!) and I was bored with the same old, same old. I remembered a peanut butter cookie with chocolate chips that I had years ago and decided to peruse the internet to see if I could recreate it. Well, DUH, you can find ANYTHING on the internet! LOL!! This recipe is a compilation of several that I looked at and uses my Baking Mix and basic cookie recipe.

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter & Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup butter               **Click here to print this recipe**
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups Baking Mix
2 cups quick-cooking oats
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, beat together butter, peanut butter and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Stir in the Baking Mix and oats; mix thoroughly. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned.
Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes and then remove to wire racks to cool completely.
Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Linking up with the Down Home Blog Hop, the Rurality Blog Hop and Farmgirl Friday.

Quilt Progress

Whew, I have been working diligently on my chicken applique quilt! So far, I have all the blocks and chickens cut out, the chickens fused on and just finished up sewing them all onto the blocks. I used the blanket stitch on my sewing machine for the applique.

Now, I have to cut the strips that will go in between the blocks and rows, cut the border strips and get everything pieced together. That will finish the quilt top and get me caught up with the Quilt-A-Long. :)
Linking up with The Rurality Blog Hop and Farmgirl Friday.

Pretzel Rolls

I was looking at the King Arthur Flour website the other day and came across this recipe. I know pretzel buns and rolls are all the rage right now but I haven't had one. I have looked at different recipes for making them but they all seemed a bit fussy, until I found this one! These babies are fabulous; crusty on the outside and nice and chewy on the inside! Jerry told me that this may be the best bread I have ever made! ;)

Pretzel Rolls               **Click here to print this recipe**

Dough
     1 3/4 cups warm water
     2 tablespoons unsalted butter
     3/4 teaspoon salt
     4 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
     1/4 cut nonfat dry milk
     2 teaspoons instant yeast

Topping
     coarse sea salt or Kosher salt

Water Bath
     2 quarts water
     1 tablespoon salt
     1/4 cup baking soda

Directions
     Mix and knead the dough ingredients - by hand, mixer or bread machine - to make a smooth, slightly sticky dough. Allow the dough to rise in a lightly greased bowl, covered, for about one hour, until doubled. Gently deflate the dough and transfer to a lightly greased work surface. With lightly greased hands, divide the dough into 8 pieces for sandwich rolls or 12 pieces for dinner rolls and shape each piece into a smooth ball. Place the balls on a lightly greased piece of parchment paper placed on a baking sheet, cover and let rest for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

Prepare the water bath: Bring the water, salt and baking soda to a boil in a large pot. Drop 3 dough balls at a time into the water bath. (I should have used a deeper pot) Cook for 30 seconds, flip over and cook for 30 seconds longer.

Using a slotted spoon, return the rolls to the baking sheet. Using scissors or a sharp knife, cut 1/2" deep crosses into the center of each roll. Sprinkle with the coarse salt.

Bake for 20 to 24 minutes or until the rolls are a deep, dark brown. Cover loosely with foil after 10 minutes if necessary so they don't get too brown. Cool completely on a wire rack.

The only problem I have is that after being in a bag overnight, the salt on the tops kind of melted away. Jerry dearly loves bagels and now that I have gotten past the whole fear of boiling bread dough thingy, I think I'll have to give them a try! :)

Linking up with the Rurality Blog Hop and Farmgirl Friday.

Wordless Wednesday - 01/15/2014

Linking up with Madge for the Rurality Blog Hop.

Wordless Rurality

Another picture from our visit to the Empire Ranch.

Sharing with the Rurality Blog Hop and Friday's Fences.

Tuesday's Tails - 11/12/2013

I just loved this little brindle calf used in the cattle handling demonstration at the Empire Ranch Roundup and Open House recently. :)

Joining Madge for the Rurality Blog Hop.

Semi-Wordless Wednesday - 11/06/2013

B Troop - 4th U.S. Cavalry Regiment (Memorial) from Fort Huachuca, AZ presented the colors to kick off the 13th Annual Empire Ranch Roundup and Open House this past weekend.

Linking with Madge for the Rurality Blog Hop.

Le Cafe des Chats

Bert and Ernie and the neighbors' cat enjoying supper together. :)

Sharing with the Rurality Blog Hop.

Pear Ginger Crisp



We harvested the fruit from our Kieffer Pear tree last week. We ended up with 20 pounds of pears from our little, 8-foot-tall dwarf tree! :)

I used some to make spiced pear jam in the slow cooker (works GREAT for the PB&J cookies), we have been eating them fresh, I gave some away and I used some to make this crisp last Sunday. What a lovely recipe! Between the maple syrup, fresh pears, dried cherries and oatmeal topping this is a fabulous dessert for fall!

The original recipe, from Simply Recipes, is for a pie but I didn't have time to properly chill the dough for the crust that afternoon so I decided to just go with a crisp. The only other change I made was to add about a cup of dried cherries, dried cranberries would be nice too.

The Bisbee Farmer's Market has a pie baking contest every fall and I put some of the pears in the refrigerator to keep so that I can enter this pie in the contest. Actually, I never told ya'll, but I WON the pie baking contest last year for a Peach Blueberry pie. It was my first week attending that market and, honestly, I was a little embarrassed about winning. LOL!!

Linking up with the Rurality Blog Hop, Farmgirl Friday and What I Am Eating.

I Pimped My Mixer!

So, I was watching the Food Network the other day (surprise, surprise!) and I was noticing all the specially painted/decorated mixers that these celebrity chefs have, like Ree Drummond, Alton Brown, Guy Fieri, etc. I was wishing I had one when I thought to myself, "Self, why don't you just add some stickers to your perfectly good, 20-year-old KitchenAid mixer to dress it up? That would make more sense than buying a new one!"

I have never claimed to be on the cutting edge of style or trends. After I got home from Wal-Mart, where I bought these cute, vinyl sunflower stickers, I looked online and found some really nice pimped out mixers and some cool tutorials, especially this one where the girl painted her mixer first. So, even though I'm behind the times, I thought I would show ya'll how cute my Farmgirl Mixer turned out and all it took was a $1 package of stickers! :)

Linking up with the Rurality Blog Hop and Farmgirl Friday.

Rural Beauty

When we were taking our walk this morning, out in the cow pasture, I noticed how beautiful the seed heads were on all the different types of grasses. I think it makes a lovely 'floral' arrangement, don't you?  :)

Joining Nancy for Tuesday Muse and Madge for the Rurality Blog Hop.

Fruit & Nut Cookies

These cookies were inspired by a bar cookie recipe I used to make years ago. That recipe called for the addition of fresh banana and orange juice, which wasn't the way I wanted to go with these. I use a combination of dried blueberries, dried cherries and chopped dried apricots but any combination of dried fruit would be nice. The Apple Pie spice really adds a nice flavor and the dried blueberries are heavenly! A few of my die-hard Cowboy Cookie and Cowgirl Cookie customers at the Farmer's Market have actually switched and now buy these every week. ;)

Fruit & Nut Cookies

1 cup butter                         **Click here to print this recipe**
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups Baking Mix
2 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 1/2 teaspoons Apple Pie spice
2 cups diced mixed dried fruit
2/3 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Stir in the Baking Mix, oats and Apple Pie spice; mix thoroughly. Stir in the dried fruit and pecans. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned.
Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes and then remove to racks to cool completely.
Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Apple Pie Spice

4 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons allspice
1 teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon nutmeg

I use this Apple Pie spice in all kinds of baked goods, not just apple pie! Besides these cookies, I use it in fresh apple muffins and zucchini muffins for the Farmer's Market. It is also really nice in pancake or waffle batter with some pecans.

Sharing with the Rurality Blog Hop, Farmgirl Friday and What I Am Eating.

Update on Red:
He is still here and doing well. Jerry took him along this morning when he rode his horse out in the pasture and he did fine. We had to put him in the horse trailer last night since it was the only place we could think of that he couldn't escape from. Right now, he is actually sitting in the livingroom watching Gunsmoke with Jerry...

Wordless Wednesday - 08/07/2013

You just never know who is going to come wandering down the road looking for a place to live...

Joining Madge for the Rurality Blog Hop.

Freezing Potatoes

Have you ever had a potato go bad in the cupboard? A rotten potato smells worse than just about anything I know. Blech!!

I had one go bad in a bag of red-skinned potatoes this week, which is why I usually don't buy bags of potatoes this time of year. They just don't keep well during our rainy season. However, there was a really good sale on 5-pound bags of red-skinned potatoes and I just couldn't resist!

Luckily, I found a way to salvage the rest of the bag. I know lots of folks can or dehydrate extra potatoes but I didn't have that many and I wanted a quick and easy way to preserve these. I looked online and found lots of info on freezing mashed potatoes. Most recommended using red-skinned or Yukons in this instance because the Idaho (baking) potatoes get mushy/mealy when frozen as mashed potatoes. The next time I have extra Idaho potatoes, I'm going to try Grace from Queen Of The Red Doublewide's suggestion for homemade frozen hashbrowns. :)

For frozen mashed potatoes, just make your favorite mashed potato recipe and let cool a bit. Then, use an ice-cream scoop to portion out servings onto a cookie sheet lined with foil. This could also help with portion control. I don't know about you, but I tend to overeat when it comes to mashed potatoes, my ultimate comfort food. Yum!!

Put them in the freezer until they are frozen solid and then pop them off of the cookie sheet and put them into a freezer bag. To serve, remove however many portions needed and reheat them from frozen in the microwave. You could also thaw them overnight in the refrigerator and heat them in the oven.

Not only did I save the rest of the bag of potatoes but I now have a ready made side dish in the freezer for busy nights when time is short for cooking supper. My only problem with this was having to eat the extra potatoes that didn't fit on the cookie sheet. Yep, comfort food at it's finest. ;)

Linking up with Rurality Blog Hop, Farmgirl Friday and What I Am Eating.

German Chocolate Cookies

The inspiration for this recipe came courtesy of my blogging buddy Carolyn at Krazo Acres. You can find her original recipe here. Thanks Carolyn, these cookies are awesome and I know they will be a big hit with my Farmer's Market customers!!

German Chocolate Cookies

1 cup butter, softened               **Click here to print this recipe**
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3 1/2 cups Baking Mix
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup sweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Stir in cocoa powder and Baking Mix; mix thoroughly. Stir in pecans and coconut. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets.
Bake for 10-12 minutes. I like them just a little on the softer side for more of a German Chocolate cake taste and texture.
Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes and then remove to racks to cool completely.
Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Yum!! All I need now is a big glass of ice-cold milk! :)

Linking up with The Country Homemaker Hop, Rurality Blog Hop, Farmgirl Friday and What I Am Eating.

Individual No-Bake Cheesecakes

We love cheesecake around here but I very rarely make it because we just don't need to eat the WHOLE thing! The April/May issue of MaryJanesFarm magazine had some recipes for mini cheesecakes made in 4-ounce canning jars. Well, that was too little so I used 8-ounce wide-mouth canning jars and it was just right! ;)

You could try different crusts and toppings to suit your tastes and what you have on hand. The thing that really impressed me was making a no-bake cheesecake without a tub of non-dairy whipped topping and I gotta tell you, this tastes sooo much better than the ones I remember from my youth that used the non-dairy whipped topping! It comes out light and fluffy and not too sweet.

 Crust                    **Click here to print this recipe**

1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon sugar

In a small bowl combine all ingredients. Divide evenly between four 8-ounce wide-mouth canning jars. Press lightly into bottom of jars.

Filling

4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup heavy cream

In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla; mix well. In a separate bowl, whip heavy cream until stiff; gently fold into the cream cheese mixture. Divide evenly between the jars.

Topping

2 cups fresh (or frozen and thawed) berries, I used fresh blackberries
1/4 cup sugar, or to taste
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

In a medium saucepan, combine berries, sugar, cornstarch and water. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Let cool completely before spooning over cheesecake filling in jars.

Top each jar with a lid and chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours before serving.

Joining the Country Homemaker Hop, Rurality Blog Hop, Pie*ography, Farmgirl Friday and What I Am Eating.

Tuesday's Tails - 05/21/2013

Our friends' mare foaled last week and I wanted to share some pictures of the cute little colt, Max.

Max's dad is a pure black, registered Percheron named Bismark, (I forgot to take pictures of him) and his mom is a registered Thoroughbred named Duchess.



Duchess

Our friends have had Bismark since he was a colt and he was a Dressage horse, he's retired now. They have used him as a stud several times over the years because of his sweet disposition. Bismark is now getting pretty old and they wanted to have one of his babies to carry on the line.

They bought Duchess off of Craigslist last year. She was in pretty poor shape when they picked her up but they got her back in good health and then bred her to Bismark. Duchess is approximately 17 hands tall and Bismark is 18 hands.

Mix is only 11 days old in these pictures, he's gonna be a big boy! He has been handled quite a bit in his young life and he kind of thinks he's a dog or maybe a people! I have seen a lot of foals that always stay on the far side of their mom and won't let anyone approach them. Not Max!! He wants to be in everybody's back pocket, even if he's never seen you before! :)

It was fun getting to go spend some time with the little guy and I look forward to future visits!
Sharing with the Rurality Blog Hop.

Tuesday's Tails - 05/14/2013

We just never know who we'll run into on our morning walks through the pasture! :)

Sharing with Tuesday Muse, Texture Tuesday and Rurality Blog Hop.

Converted to B&W with PSE11 Newspaper effect and edited with nc_Braveheart texture Multiply 75% and kk_Partings texture Multiply 75%.