Because I am awesome...........

I am making a homemade feast for my husbands 30th birthday party. Spaghetti that takes all day to make, garlic bread that is crisp on the outside yet chewy on the inside, bacon cupcakes and beer cupcakes, and beer ice cream.

I have had quite a few requests for the recipes, so I'll share a few of them. I will not now or ever give up the spaghetti sauce recipe. Ladies, if your husband has it once, you will never be able to cheat and open a jar of store sauce again. I speak from experience. My husband went blissfully happy for 4 years with my sauce that was semi-homemade before he had my mother's sauce. And since then, he turns his nose up at that "crap from a jar that is so bad, even the noodles revolt and try and get away from that sauce". I am doing you a favor, I promise.

The beer cupcake recipe comes from Big City, Little Kitchen and they are awesome! The dark chocolate & bacon cupcakes are from A Good Appetite, and although I haven't made them yet, they sound amazing and I can't wait to try them.

Beer Cupcakes

Cake

• 1 cup Guinness
• 1 stick, plus 1 tb, unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 cups dark brown sugar
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 1 tb vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 2 1/2 tsp baking soda

Glaze*

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350; butter a muffin tin.

Combine the Guinness and the butter, chopped into 1-inch chunks, in a large sauce pan, and heat to melt the butter. Remove from heat, and whisk in the cocoa and sugar. In a bowl, whisk the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla, then add to the beer mixture. Sift together the flour and baking soda, and fold into the batter. Pour into muffin molds and bake for 25 minutes, or until inserted cake tester comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes, remove from muffin tin, and cool completely on a rack.

Using a mixer, whip cream cheese until smooth, sift in sugar, and beat. Add milk, and beat until smooth. Spread glaze over cooled cupcakes.

*To create a thinner glaze, use a tablespoon or two more milk; for a topping more akin to icing, use less milk, and perhaps more sugar. In either case, add a little sugar or milk at a time, mix, and check for desired consistency.

Dark Chocolate & Bacon Cupcake

8 slices good thick-cut bacon
1 c unsalted butter
1/2 c Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa
3/4 c water
2 c granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 c well-shaken buttermilk
2 T vanilla
2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/4 t salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare 24 muffin tins.
Chop bacon into about 1/2-inch pieces. Cook over med-high heat in a skillet until bacon is brown & crisp. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon to a paper towel to drain. Pat any remaining oil off the bacon. Set aside.
Melt butter in a large heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, then whisk in cocoa. Add water and whisk until smooth. Remove from heat. Whisk in separately sugar, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the cocoa mixture and whisk until just combined (it will be a little bit lumpy). Stir in bacon.

Fill muffin tins to about 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes until a skewer or toothpick comes out clean. It's a moist cake, so don't worry if a few crumbs stick to your tester.
Allow cupcakes to cool.

Makes 24 cupcakes.

My husband has requested a few bacon cupcakes with beer icing and a piece of brown sugar bacon put on top. So I will do that for him because I love him dearly. And it may help him cope with turning the ripe old age of 30 a little more gracefully.