St. Patrick's Day and Mary's Birthday

Hope everybody had a nice St. Patrick's Day! Did you wear your green today?

Today was my mother-in-law's birthday and I remember she always got birthday cards that tied in with St. Patrick's Day. She passed away going on 7 years ago and it really seems like yesterday. Mary was a kind hearted woman who always liked to have fun and act silly, kind of like me I would say.

My mother-in-law loved to talk and visit and I can say she was a lot of fun to be around. My husband and our family went to her house for a lot of meals because she loved to cook. She really didn't like to go out to eat very much because she would rather have people at her house and do the cooking and entertaining.

The last few years of her life my mother-in-law had a stroke and had alzheimer's disease. She then had to go to a nursing home to get special care. She wasn't the same Mary but was always happy to see my husband come and visit every day after work. He was a dedicated son and always made it a point to stop and see her.

Today I was thinking of when we would go to her house in the country and always had a good time. But things change and life goes on. All you have is memories.

Happy Birthday Mary! I know you are celebrating in heaven!

Chocolate Beer Cupcakes With Whiskey Filling And Irish Cream Icing

Image Credit: All Recipes.com

Ingredients 

Original recipe makes 2 dozen cupcakes

• 1 cup Irish stout beer (such as Guinness®)
• 1 cup butter
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup sour cream

• 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon Irish whiskey, or more to taste
• 
  
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar, or more as needed
• 3 tablespoons Irish cream liqueur (such as Baileys®), or more to tast

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.
3. Bring Irish stout beer and 1 cup butter to a boil in a saucepan and set aside until butter has melted, stirring occasionally. Mix in cocoa powder until smooth.
4. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a bowl until thoroughly combined.
5. Beat eggs with sour cream in a large bowl with an electric mixer on low until well combined. Slowly beat in the beer mixture, then the flour mixture; beat until the batter is smooth.
6. Divide batter between the prepared cupcake cups, filling each cup about 2/3 full.
7. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 17 minutes.
8. Cool the cupcakes completely. Cut cores out of the center of each cupcake with a sharp paring knife. Discard cores.
9. Bring cream to a simmer in a saucepan over low heat; stir in bittersweet chocolate until melted.
10. Mix in 2 tablespoons butter and Irish whiskey until butter is melted; let mixture cool to room temperature. Filling will thicken as it cools.
11. Spoon the filling into the cored cupcakes.
12. For frosting, whip 1/2 cup butter in a bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.
13. Set mixer to low speed and slowly beat in confectioners' sugar, 1 cup at a time, until frosting is smooth and spreadable. Beat in the Irish cream liqueur; adjust thickness of frosting with more confectioners' sugar if needed.
14. Spread frosting on filled cupcakes.

Cook's Note:

• Types of alcohol I used are: Red Stripe Beer instead of stout, Jameson Whiskey, and Baileys Original; my filling isn't really that thick when I cooked mine so if it's kind of thin it's okay. I actually added a lot of Baileys to my frosting because the butter would never get fluffy enough but it turned out fine.

Thanks to All Recipes.com for recipe