Cheers! Local gourmet cupcakes with St. Patty's Day spirit
These locally made gourmet cupcakes will put a spring in your step and a slur in your speech — just in time for St. Patty’s Day.
They say you shouldn’t drink on an empty stomach.
Consider that problem solved.
With St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner, we feel it’s our civic duty to introduce you to a better way to celebrate. Besides, green beer is so last millennium.
Instead, why not take a boozy cupcake crawl around Greater Akron?
The four gourmet cupcake bakeries featured here prove that you can kill two indulgences — drinking and desserts — with one cupcake.
In doing our “research” (it’s tough taste-testing cupcakes infused with Irish liquor and beer!), we learned that — contrary to popular belief — when alcohol is added to cake batter, it doesn’t all bake out. In fact, about 40 percent of the alcohol remains. An added bonus (the icing on the cake, so to speak): When the frosting contains liquor and isn’t cooked (a buttercream, for example), 100 percent of the alcohol remains.
That’s right. You could, possibly, get a teeny buzz from one of these cupcakes. (Though we wouldn’t brag about it, lightweight.)
These cocktail-inspired creations will be available March 17th at their respective bakeries. So, in the spirit of the season, we raise a cupcake to you and, as the Irish toast says, “Sláinte! To your good health!”
What butter and whiskey will not cure, there’s no cure for.
– Irish proverb
Irish Red Velvet Tipsy-Cake
Alcohol alert: ½ ounce per cupcake
Monda’s Chupcakes
8451 Infirmary Rd., Ravenna
330-296-8995
For pickup only; call or log on to place an order.
This cupcake smells and tastes just like a pint of Killian’s Irish Red Beer. The intense red-hued cocoa cake has evenly-balanced undertones of Killian’s, and the Killian’s cream cheese frosting is the shade of pink your cheeks might turn after too many rounds at the bar. Finishing touches include a sprinkling of fine sugar and toasted red velvet cake crumbs.
According to Monda Chupko, owner of Monda’s Chupcakes, booze-infused cupcakes may be tasty, but they aren’t trendy; they’ve been around longer than St. Patrick’s Day: “The Ancient Greeks and Romans added beer to cake as a preservative,” she says, adding that, for her St. Patty’s Day-inspired Irish Red Velvet Tipsy-Cake, her husband — who’s “a bit of a beer connoisseur” — suggested that she incorporate Killian’s as the perfect foil to the chocolate flavor of red velvet cake.
Irish Car Bomb Cupcake
Alcohol alert: ½ to 1 ounce per cupcake
A Cupcake A Day
115 W. Liberty St., Medina
330-389-1247
Open Tues. and Wed., 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Thurs. and Fri., 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sat., 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sun., noon-4 p.m.; closed Mon.
This cupcake may look innocent — ivory frosting decorated with a single chocolate chip — but inside, it’s (literally) da bomb. The cake is a deep, bittersweet chocolate laced with Guinness stout beer, filled with a fudgey Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey ganache and topped with a fluffy Bailey’s Irish Cream frosting. It’s the Irish-cocktail version of a Boilermaker.
A Cupcake A Day’s owner Shawna Rollheiser says she began baking boozy cupcakes years ago — for her very pro-margarita friends. “In the first batch, I added way too much tequila so they were a little overpowering,” she says. “But it was a 21st birthday, so they definitely didn’t go to waste!”
For her Irish Car Bomb Cupcake, Rollheiser went straight to the experts for guidance and inspiration: Sully’s Irish Pub, next door to her shop.
Irish Coffee Cupcake
Alcohol alert: ½ ounce per cupcake
Pure Delite
125 Ghent Rd., Akron
330-865-4000
Open Mon., 2-6 p.m.; Tues.-Sat., 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; closed Sun.
Whiskey aficionados will appreciate the flavor of this coffee cake soaked in Jameson Irish Whiskey. The coffee/whiskey combination is nicely balanced, and just the right amount of Jameson keeps the cupcake moist, without being soggy. The cake is topped with a smooth brown sugar frosting, a sprinkling of fine coffee grounds and a drizzle of whiskey glaze. As Irish actor/musician Alex Levine once wisely noted: “Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.”
Owner Rachel Hough says that besides her Irish Coffee Cupcake, her menu includes 11 other Happy Hour cupcakes, all of which are guilt-free with “½ the calories, fat and sugar of a normal cupcake the same size.” Hough’s recipes include organic ingredients, 100-percent whole wheat flour and no sugar substitutes; she also offers gluten-free and vegan cupcakes.
Emerald Isle Cupcake
Alcohol alert: a splash per cupcake
Main Street Cupcakes
238 N. Main St., Hudson
330-342-0833
Open Tues.-Sun., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (or until sell-out!); closed Mon.
Created in celebration of the Irish-style martini, this treat features a moist, not-too-sweet cake, with a subtle hint of Tanqueray Gin and bitters, with green-hued swirls throughout. It’s covered in a rich buttercream frosting and crunchy, glistening coarse sugar, and is topped off with a green crème de menthe buttercream shamrock.
Sarah Forrer, Main Street Cupcakes co-owner and mom-to-be, says she and sister Kimberly Martin (the shop’s co-owner) had never tasted an Emerald Isle martini before they created their cupcake. “We had to go out and order them with dinner,” she says. “I’m expecting, so my sister took one for the team and drank while I just watched and drooled!” The best part, Forrer adds, is “Eating too many of these on March 17th will leave you hangover free!”
Comments?
E-mail them to editor Georgina K. Carson at gcarson@bakermediagroup.com.