Why "After-Hours Kitchenette"? Because I've got a four-year-old and a seven-year-old, as well as a full-time job that borders on swing-shift hours. So any recreational baking that gets done in this house is done after work, after dinner, after everyone else in the house has gone to bed, and usually after the 11 o'clock news. And "kitchenette" because I have the world's smallest kitchen. If I were to have another daughter, I would consider naming her Kitchenette. Or maybe Osterizer.
I do cook and bake with the kids on weekends, mostly things of the pancake or cookie variety, occasionally DIY pizzas, fruit salads and smoothies. Cooking with the kids is fun and educational and necessary. But getting down and dirty with the candy thermometers, the expensive Valrhona chocolate, the booze and the waiting -- the endless waiting -- is a solo venture, I think.
Tonight I made another batch of the Kelly's Kopper Kamel Kupcakes that I first made last week as an experiment. A delicious, boozy experiment. My dad's birthday is in a couple days, April 1, so I'm whipping up the cakes tonight, and tomorrow I'll make the frosting, and I hope to spin some sugar for the very first time to shape into toppers for the cupcakes. I'm hoping that they will look like tumbleweeds, which at this point in time, are my dad's personal totem.
A Copper Camel, by the by, is a super-sweet sipping drink comprised of a shot of Buttershots (butterscotch schnapps) with a layer of Bailey's Irish Cream floating on top of it. Ice is optional. It has a variety of names; my favorite is the Cowboy Cocksucker, or just... the Cocksucker. But it also goes by the names Rothschild or Slippery Nipple. I had my first in a gay bar on Second Street in downtown San Jose with my friend Laurie, and I've been hooked ever since.
Here's a photo of last week's effort:
Kelly's Kopper Kamel Kupcakes
Cupcakes:
4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup Bailey's Irish Cream
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), slightly softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2/3 cup milk
Another 4 oz. or so of the semi-sweet choco chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt the chocolate, brown sugar and Bailey's in a double boiler or in the microwave. Let cool. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Cream the butter and sugar in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Add the eggs one at a time, incorporating after each addition. Add the milk and sifted dry ingredients alternating a little at a time. Drizzle the chocolate mixture in and mix just until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour into a lined cupcake pans and bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Let cool in pan for five minutes before cooling completely on a rack.
Buttershots frosting:
½ cup butter, softened1 8oz. package cream cheese, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
3 tbsp. Buttershots (butterscotch schnapps)
Mix the cream cheese and butter together until light and fluffy. Add ½ cup of powdered sugar; mix. Alternate with Buttershots, mixing until all sugar is incorporated, yielding a smooth and creamy frosting.
More tomorrow as this birthday cupcake develops.
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