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Honey Roasted Grapefruit Wheat Ale and Meyer Lemon Cupcakes

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Honey Roasted Grapefruit Wheat Ale and Meyer Lemon Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting are so good you won’t want to share

Honey Roasted Grapefruit Wheat Ale and Meyer Lemon Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting are so good you won't want to share

My Honey Roasted Ruby Red Grapefruit Wheat Ale didn’t win the competition, so I consoled myself by using it to make cupcakes.

Honey Roasted Grapefruit Wheat Ale and Meyer Lemon Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting are so good you won't want to share

I mentioned this before, but didn’t really elaborate.  I brewed this beer for a competition called Beer and Branding.  It was a really cool event where home brewers were matched up with a marketing team.  The brewers created a recipe and brewed the beer while the marketing team designed a brand and label to go with it.  All the beer had to use a secret ingredient chosen by NoDa Brewing Company’s head brewer.

Honey Roasted Grapefruit Wheat Ale and Meyer Lemon Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting are so good you won't want to share

You guessed it – the secret ingredient was grapefruit.  I decided to cut them in half, cover them in honey, and roast them.  It was called Groovy Red Ruby and I think it was the best beer I ever brewed.  You can even see a little bit of pink from the red grapefruit in the head.

The label was really cool too!  My team did an awesome job and created a graphic of my white boxer, Holly, riding a wave on a surfboard.  I wish I had a copy to share, but sadly, I don’t.

Honey Roasted Grapefruit Wheat Ale and Meyer Lemon Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting are so good you won't want to share

It didn’t win the competition, but it is an amazing beer that I’m still enjoying and will absolutely brew again.  And I might just keep it all for myself. 🙂

Honey Roasted Grapefruit Wheat Ale and Meyer Lemon Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
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Honey Roasted Grapefruit Wheat Ale and Meyer Lemon Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

For the Cupcakes

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 sticks butter room temperature
  • 4 eggs room temperature
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 tablespoons lemon zest
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 2 tablespoons heavy cream
  • 1/2 cup beer

For the Frosting

  • 16 ounces cream cheese
  • 2 stick butter room temperature
  • 4 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 tablespoon meyer lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoon meyer lemon zest
  • 6 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

For the Cupcakes

  1. Preheat oven to 325
  2. Line 2 cupcake pans with paper cupcake liners
  3. Whisk or sift together flour, salt, and baking powder
  4. Add butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium high until light and fluffy
  5. Add eggs one at a time making sure each one is incorporated before adding the next and scraping down the sides
  6. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and beat until incorporated
  7. Add milk and beat until incorporated
  8. Add another 1/3 of flour mixture and beat until incorporated
  9. Add the beer, juice, and zest and beat until incorporated
  10. Add the remaining 1/3 of the flour mixture and beat until incorporated
  11. Transfer to prepared muffin tins filling about 3/4 of the way to the top
  12. Bake 25 - 27 minutes or until golden brown on top and done in the center, rotate pans halfway through baking
  13. Cool on wire racks

For the Frosting

  1. Combine butter and cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on medium high until smooth
  2. Add vanilla, juice, and zest and beat until combined
  3. Reduce speed to medium lo and add powdered sugar one cup at a time until combined and smooth
  4. Transfer frosting to a pastry bag fitted with whatever tip you like and pipe onto cooled cupcakes

NOTES: 

  1. Obviously you do not have this Honey Roasted Grapefruit Wheat Ale beer, but you can use a grapefruit ale or a wheat ale and substitute some of the lemon zest with grapefruit zest
  2. If you aren’t a cream cheese frosting freak like me, you can use half of the frosting recipe for a lighter frosted cupcake or substitute a butter cream if that blows your dress up
  3. I thought there was a gallery of the branding photos somewhere on Facebook, but I haven’t found them yet.  If I do, I’ll update this post and include a link.

 

Honey Roasted Grapefruit Wheat Ale and Meyer Lemon Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Tangerine IPA and Meyer Lemon Curd Meringue Nests

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Tangerine IPA and Meyer Lemon Curd Meringue Nests are a bright and flavorful dessert made with classic lemon curd with beer and pipped into a meringue nest.

Tangerine IPA and Meyer Lemon Curd Meringue Nests are a bright and flavorful dessert made with classic lemon curd with beer and pipped into a meringue nest

I haven’t had a lot of words to share lately.

Tangerine IPA and Meyer Lemon Curd Meringue Nests are a bright and flavorful dessert made with classic lemon curd with beer and pipped into a meringue nest

I’m not going to lie. Life has been rough.  I was just starting to find positive things to focus on, embrace spring and all it’s beauty with fresh starts and hope for the future.  I made Tangerine IPA and Meyer Lemon Curd Meringue Nests because they are bright, and yellow, and make me think of sunshine and spring and all things happy.

Tangerine IPA and Meyer Lemon Curd Meringue Nests are a bright and flavorful dessert made with classic lemon curd with beer and pipped into a meringue nest

We’ve grieved and dealt with the tragedy as best we could.  We were emerging from the darkness with a positive outlook.

Tangerine IPA and Meyer Lemon Curd Meringue Nests are a bright and flavorful dessert made with classic lemon curd with beer and pipped into a meringue nest

I guess I thought it was safe to live and hope again.  I guess it was too soon because the universe was there waiting to sucker punch me again.  Right in the heart.

Peyton

Run free sweet girl.  You were loved.

Peyton

Peyton

April 2010 – April 2017

Peyton was a rescue we adopted in April 2010 from Blue Ridge Boxer Rescue.  We never really knew exactly how old she was, so we just counted her adoption day as the start of her new life free from gassing shelters and abuse.  Please adopt. Don’t shop. There are so many beautiful animals in shelters that deserve loving homes.  

Tangerine IPA and Meyer Lemon Curd Meringue Nests
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Tangerine IPA and Meyer Lemon Curd Meringue Nests

Ingredients

For the Tangerine IPA and Lemon Curd

  • 1/4 cup Meyer Lemon juice about 2 lemons
  • 1/2 cup tangerine IPA beer
  • 8 egg yolks
  • 1 3/4 cups sugar
  • 1 1/2 sticks COLD butter cut into tablespoon size pieces

For the Meringue

  • 4 egg whites room temp
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 2 teaspoons corn starch
  • 1 cup sugar

Instructions

For the Tangerine IPA and Meyer Lemon Curd

  1. Combine lemon juice, beer, egg yolks, and sugar in a heavy bottomed pot and heat on medium while whisking constantly, making sure to get into the corners
  2. Continue cooking and whisking, without bringing to a complete boil until mixture becomes thick - about 7 - 10 minutes
  3. Remove from heat and stir in each tablespoon of butter, one at a time, making sure each is melted (for the most part) before adding the next
  4. Transfer to an air tight container and refrigerate until needed

For the Meringue

  1. Preheat oven to 215
  2. Add egg whites to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment
  3. Start out on low speed and whip the egg whites
  4. Add vanilla and corn starch and when the eggs start to get foamy, increase the speed to medium
  5. Add sugar slowly, one tablespoon at time
  6. After about half the sugar is incorporated, increase the speed to medium high
  7. Continue adding sugar one tablespoon at a time and beat until stiff peaks form and can stand up on their own without falling over - this process takes about 15 minutes
  8. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
  9. Transfer meringue to a disposable piping bag fitted with a star tip and pipe onto the parchment paper one 3 - 4 inch circle, fill in the center, then add two rings one on top of the other around the edge of the base creating a nest, repeat 12 times, then make little stars with the remaining meringue
  10. Bake 90 minutes or until meringue is solid and dry (ish)
  11. Turn off oven and leave the pan inside until cooled completely

For the Assembly

  1. Transfer curd to a disposable piping bag
  2. Pipe into the center of the nests and fill to just above the top
  3. Serve with the meringue stars and whipped cream if desired

NOTES: 

  1. I don’t normally recommend cooking with an IPA because they are usually hoppy and when reduced can become very bitter.  In this curd recipe I didn’t cook it down very much, so the hops didn’t have a real opportunity to concentrate and get bitter.  The flavor combination of the tangerine beer and the sweet and tang of the meyer lemon juice was a perfect balance with the meringue nests. I used Tangier from Southern Tier.
  2. I saw something similar to these nests in a magazine that I was reading while bored out of my mind waiting in Lowes for Chris to finish shopping for boring hardware or screws or something.  I was inspired, but have no recollection of what magazine it was.

 

 

Tangerine IPA and Meyer Lemon Curd Meringue Nests