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Brewgrass Festival Recap

Posted on July 10, 2013
beer, Beer Event, Beer Tasting, Brewery, CA, Photography
Comments: 5

On June 29th several people braved the almost triple-digit heat to attend BrewGrass at Packinghouse Brewery in Riverside CA. Nothing proves how dedicated people are to a great event like oppressive heat. The event was from 1pm to 6pm at the brewery and featured fantastic bluegrass bands, cigar pairings, food trucks, and delicious beers.

The event had several breweries in attendance: Bootleggers, Bravery Brewing Co., Craft Brewing Co., Dale Brothers Brewing, Donkey Punch, I and I, Inland Empire Brewing, Iron Fire, Area 51, Noble Brewing, North Coast, Newport Beach Brewing Co., Hanger 24, Ritual, Off the Grid, Sons of Liberty, Thompson Brewing Co., Brew Rebellion, Valiant Brewing, Wicks Brewing Co., Oak Hills, Black Market, and Wiens Brewing Co. One really interesting thing about this event is they also had booths set-up for homebrewing clubs to pour their beers. The homebrew clubs representing were: Riverside Brew Crew, Riverside Brew Punx, BrewLuminatti, and the Long Beach HomeBrew Club to name a few. I really enjoyed all the different styles and interesting flavors like the rosemary beer I tried, for example. I am a little biased and my favorite was the Mini Oats n’ Hoes session from John Holzer who was brewing alongside the Ripperside Brewpunx.

One interesting beer that sticks out in my mind was the Blackberry IPA from Bravery Brewing. It was so drinkable and only had a slight tart/tang flavor from the blackberries. It was a nice counter from the hops. Really impressive and interesting.

I was really impressed by everyone working at the event. The heat was the common enemy and united everyone to fight against it and keep everyone hydrated and as cool as possible. The staff was constantly helping people who were overheated or dehydrated and at one point the cold box became the recovery zone for the most heat affected people. I might have stepped in the for a few minutes, but it was on official “checking on the keg to make sure it was good” business with a beer-pouring volunteer. I could have stayed in the cold box all day but alas, I had to go back to sweaty reality. All things considered, it was a really fun event. I would attend again, hopefully with more favorable weather.

Spicy Beer Pickles

Posted on July 8, 2013
beer, Photography, Pickling
Comments: 5

It’s summertime and the garden is blooming and producing a ton of flowers and veggies. Sometimes we get lucky and a plant takes off and produces more than we expected or could eat before they go bad. We planted a few different cucumber plants and the garden and the lemon cucumber plant exploded with a ton of cucumbers. Lemon cucumbers are round and looks like a lemon (doesn’t really taste like a lemon) and are perfect for pickling. It just so happens that we also had a few regular cucumbers, banana peppers, jalapenos, and cayenne peppers that were also ripe and ready to be used from the garden. Time to make spicy pickles!

Ingredients:

24 oz beer (I used Amarillo Pale from Hangar 24)

1/2 cup water

4 cups white vinegar

2 cups white granulated sugar

2 tablespoons of salt

mustard seeds

peppercorns

garlic gloves

peppers

dill

cucumbers (I used about 10 lemon cucumbers and 3 regular cucumbers)

mason jars

Directions:

1. Prepare your mason jars by washing them in hot water and setting aside to dry. You can also boil them to ensure cleanliness.

2. Put beer, water, vinegar, sugar and salt into a large pot to bring to a boil on medium high heat.

3. Line-up your prepared mason jars and start adding the spice ingredients. I think eyeballing the mustard seeds, peppercorns, and dill is fine but if I had to guess I added about a teaspoon of each ingredient. I then chopped up 10 banana peppers, 5 cayenne peppers, 5 jalapenos and just distributed them evenly into the jars. I didn’t take the ribbing and seeds out of the peppers because I wanted max spiciness but you can opt to take them out. I added about 2 garlic cloves in each jar. The amount of peppers you use is really up to you and how spicy you want the cucumbers to be. If I had to guess I ended-up with 1/2 jalapeno, 1 cayenne, and 2 banana peppers in each jar.

4. Cut-up your cucumbers either in rounds or in wedges. Stuff as much as you can into each jar. Add the hot pickling liquid into each jar until it’s almost filled to the top. Add the lid and make sure it’s extremely tightly sealed. It’s optional, but I boiled each sealed jar for 5 minutes in boiling water to ensure the seal was air-tight and I left on a wire rack to cool overnight.

5. Once cool, place in the fridge and the pickles should be ready in about 3 days.

The big jars were more mild than the smaller jars. The smaller jars were more intensely hot. We tried both the regular cucumbers and the lemon ones and I have to say I liked the lemon cucumbers more! The flavor was vivid and complex. In the future when I make these again I think that I might add a little less sugar. I prefer a little less sweet flavor on the pickles. They weren’t overly sweet by any means, but I would prefer a little less sweet. We took these to our friends 4th of July BBQ and they were a big hit!

Monday Night Brewing Mini Pies

Posted on June 24, 2013
baking, beer, Brewery, Monday Night Brewing, Photography, Pies
Comments: 2

What is more fitting than baking mini pies on a Monday night with Monday Night Brewing Company? I know, it’s mind-blowing but so are these little pies. I have made pies before, but not the mini version. I know they are gaining popularity with the baking and pintrest world so I thought I would give it a whirl. They were pretty labor intensive but damn… they are cute and tasty!

Monday Night Brewing is a small craft brewery located in Georgia. They will are just shy of two years old and I was fortunate enough to try their Eye Patch IPA, Fu Manbrew Belgian Style Wit, and the Drafty Kilt Scotch Ale. Their beers are very well done and true to style with a little surprise hidden in a great beer. The Fu Manbrew has a surprise of ginger that gives a spice that was unexpected. The IPA is very drinkable and light and the scotch ale is a very nicely done beer. I took a look at their website and I fell in love with their tasting room. How awesome is it they have a tie wall where you can bring an old tie for a beer? If you live in Atlanta, GA I highly recommend checking them out for a few beers. You can find them here:

Monday Night Brewing
670 Trabert Ave NW
Atlanta, GA 30318

Ingredients:

Crust:

2 1/2 cups AP flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes

1/4 cup cold water

1 egg for egg washing the top of the pies, optional sprinkle of sugar

Filling:

Any fruit, 4 cups of it, cooked down with a 1/4 cup of beer and a cup of sugar. I used cut-up fresh peaches with the Kilt Lifter scotch ale.

Directions:

1. In a food processor, process together the flour butter and salt by pulsing them together 5-7 times. Process again while adding the water in a slow stream until the dough comes together, and make sure it’s not too wet. The texture should be borderline sandy but would stick together if you squeezed a handful together. Split the dough into two disks and wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

2. Cut-up your fruit (or if you are using frozen fruit the fruit will break down so no need to puree it) into small pieces. Place in a skillet and cook down with 1 cup sugar and 1/4 cup beer. Keep the heat on medium low and make sure not to burn it. Once the fruit has cooked down and the liquid has reduced, after about 20-30 minutes, place in a bowl to cool and set aside.

3. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Using a cupcake pan, be sure to grease with butter or spray very good with cooking spray. These little suckers want to stick no matter what you do so be careful. Roll-out your dough either by flouring a flat surface or using two sheets of plastic wrap into 1/4 inch thick. Using a 4 inch round cookie cutter, cut-out circles for the bottom of the pie. A cottage cheese container lid size should work as well. Push the dough into the cupcake mold either using a pastry tool (looks like a mini wooden post from a staircase) or by using your hands. Fill them with the prepared fruit filling and cover with an additional circle of dough and seal shut by using water or egg or pressing the dough together. You can do various decorative tops including a lattice, traditional cover with holes poked around the center, and the holes poked and stretched to look like netting. Be wary not to over-fill the well because it will bubble up a little while baking.

4. Brush your prepared mini pies with a lightly beaten egg and sprinkle some sugar to maximize the crunch on top. Cook for about 30 minutes or until slightly brown on top. Allow to cool completely in the tins and be aware you might need to wiggle a knife around them to get them out but they should lift out pretty.easily.

Ok, if you couldn’t tell from the photo, these mini pies were freaking delicious. I shared a small taste with Sean and we were over the moon about the flavor. The crust was light and flaky and crunchy while the filling was sweet and fresh with notes of caramel from the cooked-down beer. I am in love.

Yeild: 12 mini pies

Level: Intermediate

Lasts: 3-4 days in the fridge

Season: Any

38 Degrees Anniversary Recap

Posted on June 19, 2013
38 degrees, Anniversary, beer, Beer Event, Beer Tasting, lucky baldwin, Photography
Comments: 0

A little while ago I went to 38 Degrees Alehouse in Alhambra, CA for their Anniversary party. I have never been to 38 degrees so it was a nice treat to go somewhere new. I loved walking-up to the place and getting to soak-up all the wonderful downtown Alhambra ambiance. The wood, brick, and old-school charm really resonates with one’s soul.

Walking into 38 degrees, it was busy. We managed to find seating on the small and narrow smoking patio and delegated someone to the task of fighting to get beer tasters from the Herculean tap list at the very crowded bar. Some notable beers we tasted was Templeton Three by Eagle Rock, Oak Aged Bretta by Logsdon Farmhouse Ales, Six Killer Stout by IronFire, and URSA Minor by Craftsman Brewing Co. The oak aged bretta by Logsdon was wonderful and light with a slight note of oak and the URSA was a lighter sour ale that was just so impressive.

I will have to come back to 38 when they are not so busy and try the food. I was really impressed with the bar service and the patrons were very patient and understanding with everyone clamoring for beers.

38degreesandluckybaldwinsandschooners-15

Hop Heads!

After 38 degrees we went over to Lucky Baldwins in Pasadena for some food and beers before heading to Beer Belly. The chips and beers at Lucky Baldwins were outstanding as per usual.

Not wanting to be full before Beer Belly, we left in search of more food. Once we arrived at Beer Belly we indulge in bacon, and fried catfish, and deep fried pop tarts and oreos. Pair that with outstanding taps and it was just heavenly. Beer Belly should rename their restaurant to Heaven because that’s really what it is. It’s a little slice of Heaven in LA. Now, if they could just make their food be 0 calories then it would really be heaven.

38degreesandluckybaldwinsandschooners-47

View from Beer Belly’s new patio!

The day after this LA extravaganza, we went to Schooners on Sunset in Seal Beach for the La Beer Bloggers event. While I didn’t actually get to meet anyone new because I was late (thanks day before) and was in the wrong place of the bar for an hour, it was really fun. The beers were great and Aloha Radio was playing some great reggae music. I did get to meet some awesome Beer Paper LA people afterward at Beachwood BBQ in Long Beach for some food and good times. It was truly a fantastic weekend of good people, good food, and of course, great beers.

Shakoolie Provides The Ultimate Shower Beer

Posted on June 19, 2013
beer
Comments: 1

~Sponsored Post~

The shakoolie shower can holder provides a study vehicle for shower beers to flourish.

From the website:

Shakoolie is built on a simple principle—don’t let a little thing like showering get in the way of drinking beers. Shakoolie lets you enjoy your favorite canned beverages in the shower.

For us, the shower beer started during our college years. Trips to the shower room meant a plastic shower caddy stocked with shampoo, body wash and, of course, a fresh, cold beer. But once in the shower, bending over and excess water led to a less than desirable experience—so we set out to fix that.

What we have come up with creates convenience and quality in your shower beverage experience. We know because we strive for that top-notch shower beer experience every time and have become avid users of the Shakoolie ourselves.

I have used this so far for a month and it seems to maintain the stickiness and sturdiness.

Be sure to visit their website and get one!

Gorgonzola IPA Crackers

Posted on June 17, 2013
baking, beer, Crackers, Four Peaks, recipe
Comments: 4

Sorry for the absenteeism lately! I know I normally post once a week and I apologize for not posting last week. We have been switching over our internet at home and now that things are finally sorted-out we can get back on track! This week I made gorgonzola IPA crackers using Four Peaks Hop Knot IPA gifted to me by a new beer friend Alyssa Medina! She is the liaison for Four Peaks Brewery in Arizona but just happened to be at Beer Belly in LA the same time I was there meeting-up with some north county beer friends and BAM! AZ beer to take home! Alyssa has an awesome blog you should check out here: http://drinkbetterbeer.wordpress.com

I love crackers. Who doesn’t? They are salty, crunchy, and addicting. The blank stare followed by the continual hand-to-mouth motion of mindless snacking is only perpetuated by delicious junk food like good crackers or chips. Even the name has crack in it. That has to count for something.

I based this recipe off the smitten kitchen parmesan crackers recipe!

Directions:

1 cup AP Flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup of crumbled gorgonzola cheese

4 tablespoons of cold butter cut into small cubes

1/4 cup of beer

Instructions:

1. In a food processor pulse together the flour, salt, cheese, and butter. Add the beer until the mixture comes together into a ball.

2. Put the mixture in some plastic wrap and put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

3. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Using the wonderful trick of rolling out dough between two sheets of plastic wrap, roll out your dough to about a 1/4 inch thick.

4. Using a pizza cutter or a pasta wheel cutter cut your cracker shapes. Put onto a silpat or parchment paper and then stab with a fork to create air holes. Add salt or any other topping to your desire. I also put the crackers in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes before baking them so they keep the shape better.

5. Bake for 15 minutes. I rotated them halfway through and waited to take them out until I could see a little browning on the crackers.

6. Allow to cool completely.

These crackers were awesome. They were crunchy, salty, tangy, cheesy, and so satisfying. They were like gourmet cheese-its you can make at home. It’s definitely worth doing for a party. You can make the dough the night before and roll-0ut some awesome crackers before the party guests arrive and they will be soooo impressed!

Yield: 30-50 crackers

Lasts: 3-4 days

Season: Any

Level: Beginner

Valiant Brewing Lemon Bars with Spent Grain and Honeycomb Candy

Posted on June 3, 2013
baking, Bar, beer, honeycomb, Photography, recipe, spent grain, Valiant
Comments: 1

What?! It’s a double recipe post? I know, you must think I am crazy. Well, I kinda am. I managed to get two new baked goods done this weekend for your viewing and (for some) tasting pleasure. First: spent grain lemon bars. These are made with the spent grain we had left over from the watermelon pale we brewed over the weekend. It has standard 2 row malt with some wheat and crystal 20 baked at 250 degrees F for 4 hours then left in the oven to dry out. These were baked with some of Valiant Brewing’s First Flight American Strong Ale 13.7%ABV which is sweet and has notes of caramel and fruitiness. Second: honeycomb candy. I have made this a few times before so instead of re-post the recipe, I will link to the process here. The only thing I want to note is I have found that if you add the beer right at 300 degrees then the baking powder you are better off because if you add the beer too early it’s easy to burn. I should know, I ruined two batches. If you live in Orange County and haven’t been to Valiant yet, it’s defiantly worth the trip. I wrote about their soft opening here.

Spent Grain Lemon Bars

Ingredients:

For the crust:

3/4 cup or 1 & 1/2 sticks butter, either very cold or frozen and cut into small cubes or grated (like cheese)

1 3/4 cups AP flour

3/4 cup powdered sugar

3/4 teaspoon coarse salt

1 cup spent grain

For the filling:

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/3 cups granulated sugar

3 tablespoons of AP flour

1/4 teaspoons coarse salt

3/4 cups lemon juice

1/4 cup beer

1 tablespoon lemon zest

powdered sugar for dusting

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray or butter a 9×13 glass pan. You can either line it with parchment paper for easy removing or cut the squares out. Beware of cutting, it can make them less pretty.

2. In a food processor, finely grind the spent grain. Add the flour. Once you have mixed the spent grain and flour together, measure out 1 & 3/4 cups of the mixture and place in a bowl. If you don’t have spent grain, you can just use 1 & 3/4 cups flour. Whisk together the powdered sugar, salt and flour mixture. Add the small pieces of cold butter. Some people have the patience to use a wooden spoon but I prefer a pastry cutter coupled with my hands mashing the mixture together until it becomes sandy. Be careful to not use your hand too long because the heat of your hands will melt the butter.

3. Press the crust mixture into the prepared dish in an even layer. Put in the freezer to set. Once the crust is cool (after 15-20 mins) bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes. The edges should be golden brown.

4. While the crust is baking, make the filling. Basically whisk everything together and then pour over the hot crust. Turn the oven down to 325 and cook for another 18-20 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes and then either lift out or cut out the squares to continue to cool on a wire rack. Once totally cool, dust with confectioners sugar.

These lemon bars were delicious. I used meyer lemons which are naturally sweeter. I am lucky that my soon to be mother-in-law has a meyer lemon tree because I have lemon bars and lemonade stocking my fridge. The spent grain added similar texture to that of a crunchy granola or oats to the crust. I think it was a successful use the leftover spent grain after homebrewing.

Yields: 12 to 24 squares, depending on how big or small you cut

Lasts: 2 days

Season: Spring and Summer

Level: Beginner

Father’s Office Kicks Ass and Takes Names

Posted on May 29, 2013
Bar, beer, Beer Tasting, Father's Office, Foodie
Comments: 1

Sometimes you have a place to go that just gets you. You know what I mean. I think we all have a restaurant and/or bar that just understands exactly what you want: it rarely has a wait, offers incredible food quality that never waivers, and has a fantastic craft beer selection, and has a fun and interesting atmosphere. It’s not that often you find a place that will have ALL of these qualities, but I am certain that me and Father’s Office in Culver City are kindred spirits. Destined to have a mutually beneficial relationship founded in a love of all that is craft beer and food.

Father’s Office is located in the old Helms Bakery shopping center off of Venice Blvd. and the 10 freeway. If you haven’t seen the Helms Bakery shopping center it’s full of upscale furniture stores and has the neat vintage signs still intact from it’s baking days. I especially love the H.D. Buttercup neon sign. Who names a furniture store that name? It’s kinda fantastic.

The restaurant is a rectangle shape with communal tables out on the patio and a long sprawling bar inside that is almost as long as the restaurant itself. They smartly have identical taps on each end of the bar so if you order something from one end the bartender doesn’t have to take the time to run to one end and pour the beer and come all the way back. They always have beers from one of my favorite breweries, Craftsman Brewing Company from Pasadena on tap.

Speaking of beer, when we went they had Row 2, Hill 56 by Russian River which is a wonderful beer made by one of my all-time favorite breweries. It’s hard to get Russian River beers, especially their other beers that you don’t see that often. Row 2, Hill 56 is a 100% Simcoe Pale that’s 5.8%ABV and oh-so-drinkable. Russian River really knows how to treat those hops.

Father’s Office is truly is a foodie paradise. Where else can you get smoked eel and a poached egg with horseradish creme fraiche and fennel appetizer? I haven’t seen stuff like that anywhere else. We had the asparagus with lamb bacon with a sunny-side up egg and a side of pickled asparagus to start, along with a cheese plate. The asparagus was crunchy and fresh and complimented by the fatty and crunchy lamb bacon and the silky egg yolk. The pickled asparagus on the side was just perfect. For dinner I had the Hawaiian butter fish which was seared rare with caponata, “black” olive oil, crispy carole nete on top. It was silky and buttery and the caponata was the perfect compliment. I ate the entire thing and didn’t even offer any to Sean because it was that good. Sean had the Father’s Office burger, which has earned some fame for the restaurant due to the bacon jam spread on the burger. It’s a bacon and onion compote cooked down with magic and crack to adorn their rare burger patty that has been handled with kitten gloves. I have seen food network covering the chef cooking this burger, and he says the key to a good burger is to only flip once and keep your hands off it while it’s cooking. It seems to work for him because the burger is always delicious. It’s soft and meaty, fatty but sweet with salty undertones. Add arugula and a soft roll bun and it’s time to devour! Their fries on the side are small “shoe string” fries salted and sprinkled with herbs. These fries are addictingly good.

We have been back to Father’s Office several times because we just can’t get enough. It honestly never misses (knock on wood). Hope to see you all there!

Hangar 24 Airfest & 5th Anniversary Celebration Recap

Posted on May 28, 2013
beer, Beer Event, Beer Tasting, Brewery, Hangar 24
Comments: 0

The Hangar 24 Airfest and 5th Anniversary Celebration took place on May 18th at the Redlands Municipal Airport and boasted amazing aerial acrobatics, live music, activities, food and of course … beer!

The wait was at least 30-45 mins to get in, but that’s shame-on-me for not getting a pre-sale ticket. That line was super short. The pre-sale ticket was $5 and the door ticket was $8, yay for being so cheap! Cheers to the volunteers and workers who were pouring beer. They were working hard and doing a great job at keeping the lines moving.

I wandered the event and really enjoyed all the displays of the vintage planes and had fun shooting them. I had missed the daytime airshow by only an hour but had fun looking at all the planes.

The proceeds of the event was going to the Hangar charities which provide for the local orange groves and they had their vintage farm trucks and beautiful wooden boxes.. I chatted with the owner of the trucks and we agreed that the wooden crates were wonderful. I explained that if he ever wanted to sell them he needed to call me.

The scenery was majestic. The background of the sprawling mountains was breathtaking and once the sun was setting I couldn’t stop myself from taking a ton of photos.

The beers I had were the XPA which was a drinkable experimental IPA that Hangar is playing around with. They apparently are going to brew another variation of that soon in an effort to make the best IPA they can based on this beer’s feedback. I tried the Slow Roll Anniversary beer which was a Belgian golden aged in bourbon barrels but it tasted more like a dubbel to me because of the massive sweet, almost raisin flavors.

Overall the event was enjoyable and people worked really hard to provide a fun experience for all the attendees. I only wish there had been more food vendors. I waited over an hour in a food truck line only to be told they had run out of food and their fryers were cold. I always expect a few hiccups at a massive event like the Airfest. The concept and venue were great and the hard work that was put into it was obvious. Based on the comments I saw from social media the people of Redlands really appreciated it. Can’t wait for next year! I will come earlier and bring granola bars.

Cherry and Almond Tea Cakes with I&I Brewing’s Dripp Imperial Stout

Posted on May 27, 2013
baking, beer, Cupcakes, I & I Brewing, recipe
Comments: 1

Martha Stewart’s Cupcake book has this recipe that I have been wanting to try for a while now. The picture of the tea cakes are so adorable. The only problem is you need fresh cherries and I always seem to miss the season. Luckily, cherries are all over the place right now so I was able to make these cakes with bing cherries and sweet cherries. I substituted the cherry brandy with I&I Brewing’s Dripp Imperial Stout beer. I&I Brewing is a small nano brewery in Chino, CA where the brewers are super friendly and the beers are original and super tasty. We had a tzatziki beer made with lemon and cucumber and dill that just blew my mind. I was so in love with it. I said they need to put that in place of the cucumber water at spas. The Dripp Imperial Stout is obviously a stout but it has cold brewed coffee added from a local coffee place in Chino called Dripp. The beer is 12%ABV and considerably boozy, but has great flavor and body. Perfect for baking with because a little goes a long way.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup AP flour

1 cup unblanched almonds

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon sea salt

5 large egg whites

2 tablespoons of beer

12 cherries with stems intact

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray cupcake or muffin tins with cooking spray and set aside. Put butter in a sauce pan and cook until browned. Skim the foamy part off. Allow the butter to cool and then strain the burnt pieces away.

2. Using a food processor, finely chop the almonds. Add to a bowl and whisk in the flour and sugar and salt with the almonds. Add the egg whites and beer and whisk together. Once the butter is cooled enough add the butter and whisk together.

3. Pitting the cherries are optional but I feel it’s necessary. You don’t want people to bite into a pit while eating your dessert. I don’t have a cherry pitter, so I sliced a little opening on the side of the cherry and twisted the pit out while keeping the stem intact. Place a little batter on the bottom of the tins, then place your prepared cherry in the middle and scoop the remaining batter around the cherry so it’s completely covered but the stem’s still exposed.

4. Cook for 12-15 minutes, rotating once during cooking. Transfer to a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes then take the teacakes out of the pan to continue cooling.

Makes: 12

Lasts: 1-2 days

Season: Summer

Level: Beginner

These cakes turned out great. They are not only visually stunning but they taste amazing as well. The butter in the recipe really helps the edges get crispy and the cooked soft cherry in the center is a bright burst of flavor that screams summer. The beer helps make a second level of flavor and adds a spiced element where the cake could really use another dimension of flavor. The almonds lend a nice texture element along with the soft cake. I would make these again in a heartbeat.