Cupcake Fail with a Silver Lining

I love cupcakes.

Why don't they love me back?

The picture above is my wedding cake cupcake tower. They were wonderful- lemon with lemon curd filling, chocolate with raspberry filling, and vanilla with chocolate ganache filling. And they were delicious. Thanks to sandcastlematt for the image! And yes, that's Batman and Wonder Woman on top.

However. The following is my Facebook status report upon trying this recipe
for Chocolate Whiskey and Beer Cupcakes from Smitten Kitchen:

"Erica Smiley's Irish cupcakes met with mixed results. Removal from pan proved difficult and there were many casualties. Decapitation frequent and gruesome. Lack of more formal piping bags led to collision of ganache and ziploc. Must work quickly to establish historical precedent for "Erica's Awesome Spatula Cupcakes." Am hoping preponderance of butter, Bailey's and cocoa will smooth things over. Results to follow."

Well, the results were gooey, rich, and delicous. I halved the frosting and doubled the whiskey in the ganache. But all I can say is: Use paper liners on these cupcakes, people. Paper liners.

Update: While my cupcake tin did not have a silver lining, this story in fact does. My culinary/coronary daredevil of a husband, who fears nothing high in fat or cholesterol, has taken the cupcake wreckage, placed it in a tupperware, and vowed to make it into bread pudding. Ladies, that's what we call a keeper.

Asparagus and Pasta with Egg-Lemon Sauce

I've already mentioned my love of asparagus. I finally got Jonah into it, and now he can't get enough. My friend Beth (of the pizza dip recipe, see February) got us a wonderful vegetarian Jewish cookbook called Olive Trees and Honey. We've made a couple of the recipes, including Cheesy Stuffed Eggplant and the abovementioned asparagus, and although both have benefited from our tinkering around, I'm sure they're quite good as is.

Here's the asparagus recipe. The sauce is essentially a hollandaise. The first time we made it, we found that it makes wayyyyy too much sauce for the asparagus, so we put the rest on pasta. It won't keep for more than a day since it has partially cooked egg and can't be reheated, so make and eat. It's so good there won't be leftovers anyway.

1 bunch asparagus, cut into 2-3" pieces.
2 tsp flour
2 eggs
5 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic, chopped

2 cups pasta, cooked

Sautee garlic in oil. After several minutes, remove and add asparagus. Sautee several minutes, then add water to pan. Bring water to a boil and let cook until asparagus is softened. Meanwhile, beat 2 eggs. Add flour and then lemon juice. When asparagus is done, remove from pan and pour cooking liquid into egg mixture. Pour both back into the pan and cook about 3 minutes on low heat, until the sauce starts to thicken up. Remove immediately from pan and pour over pasta and asparagus.

This is a great side dish!