CUPCAKES!

Ever since I was little and watching my Mam-maw, I've loved to bake. My daddy loved to bake as well, he found it relaxing, and so do I. Over the past year, I've been experimenting with cupcakes a lot, creating new flavors, fillings, and icings.

Jason has also found a love of craft beers over the past few years and we have found an awesome brewery in Raleigh that we frequent, okay...we are there most Fridays, but we love us some LoneRider.

We have also been visiting other local breweries in the area as well. Some of which are very close to us like LoneRider and Roth.

I've never been much of a beer person until Jason took me on a brew tour at LoneRider a year or so ago. I tasted all of their beers and fell in love with all of them. My favorite is Sweet Josie, which has won Gold at the Great American Beer Fest.

During my experimentation with cupcakes, Jason suggested that I try to incorporate some of our favorite beers in my cupcakes. I mean, heck, what's better than cupcakes & beer? SRSLY...it's perfect!

The first beer I experienced with was LoneRider's Shotgun Betty hefeweizen, with notes of banana and cloves. The first batch was okay, but had too much banana in it. I thought over the next few weeks, and decided to try something completely different. I kept thinking of how good banana pudding would go with it, so I came up with a "Nilla Wafer" cake and used a Shotgun Betty Buttercream Icing. (Yes, beer + icing = heaven)



Jason, my taste tester, loved them immediately, so I decided to take the rest of the batch to LoneRider on Friday night. They were a hit! (Which makes me happy, cause I've never put my baking out there like that.) Sumit, one of the owners of LoneRider even liked them.



Sunday for the Super Bowl I decided to try a cupcake with Sweet Josie (my favoritest beer ever!). They were a hit too, so I stopped by LoneRider on my way home today and picked up a 6 pack to make cupcakes for tomorrow. Hopefully they will go over just as well as the Shotgun Betty Cupcakes!

(Check me out on Twitter @cupcakebrewery)