Beer Loves Chocolate

I'm not much of a drinker. I never liked the bitter taste of alcohol and I could never understand why some people even get addicted to it. (Besides, too much beer in my bloodstream also causes me to start acting weird, which I'm sure my colleagues would agree lol). 

Then again, I can't live without coffee though beer and coffee taste nothing in common except that they're both bitter. But I am always up to try something different, something other than the usual chocolate cupcake. The Guinness beer definitely added a certain depth to the flavor of the chocolate, a little "je ne sais quoi". If I was to put it into a word, I'd say I can taste a subtle hint of yeast like a freshly baked bread. The beer together with the sour cream also made the cupcakes moist, soft and fluffy. The ganache complimented the cupcake perfectly. I wanted to use a frosting that wouldn't compete with the flavor of the beer and chocolate so I decided on using vanilla buttercream. My colleagues loved it and one even said that this was the best thing I've ever baked for them.

A New Chapter for a New Year

As 2011 ended, I look back with gratitude for all the blessings I received. It was a year of loss and of sadness for all the flood victims in the southern Philippines. It was a sad time when we lost a valuable colleague and friend who left the company. It's been a little more quiet at work than it used to be. On the other hand, it was also a year of gain and happiness when I found love again after a long, long wait and it was the year when I finally had the courage to start my own blog to share my passion for food and baking and show my creative side.

The start of the new year fills me with hope for what's to come, a year I hope that is better than the last. This year I hope to think and attract only good and positive things, to be happy, healthy and wealthy, to travel to Netherlands, to learn a new language (Dutch), to study photography and lastly, to bake and update my blog more often.