Two Months Later...

...And Seattle is still celebrating!

Yes, this post is about the Super Bowl champions, the Seattle Seahawks. Super Bowl Sunday has always been more of a celebration of food and great friends than the actual game for me, but this year had the added bonus of bringing hometown pride to my borrowed city of Washington, DC.

Seattle is a peculiar place when it comes to sports. We are famous for our losses, our heartbreaks, and our almost-made-its. While our WNBA team, the Seattle Storm, has won their fair share of titles, the larger teams have pretty much stank for decades. Seattle is an expansion team city without the long storied history benefiting teams in New York or Chicago. The Mariners tried their hardest during the miraculous 1995 season, yet they have made losing an art form and still have never stepped foot into the World Series. The Sounders consistently make the MLS playoffs, only to lose spectacularly in the first or second round. I'm not even going to touch our now nonexistent NBA team (RIP Seattle Sonics).

The Seahawks have been different. They've been to the Super Bowl before (and got screwed out of winning by some bad referees). But instead of being content with getting there once like Seattleites would expect, they came back this year. And not only did they come back, they were back with a vengeance. They brought the suffering of a long forgotten sports city and beat the Denver Broncos with it. (Ok, to be fair, the Broncos didn't even bother to show up to actually play the game.)

Seattle celebrated like you'd expect. Riotously, but politely. Exuberant, but law-abiding.

And on the east coast? Well, there wasn't much time left to celebrate before having to go to bed and get up for work the next day.



Of course we made our favorite Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes in celebration - Guinness Chocolate Cake with Bailey's Buttercream Frosting. I had to skip the Jameson Chocolate Ganache this time as I didn't quite budget my time right, but they were still delicious nonetheless.

The Seahawk logo was the hardest part of this endeavor. I hand-cut the hawk from rolled out fondant and then took to it with a paintbrush and some gel food coloring mixed with lemon juice. Another alternative to "painting" would be decorating "markers." The important thing to remember when free styling your design is that it doesn't have to be perfect! A little bit of imperfection makes it your own and gives it character.

The defining characteristic of a Seattle sports fan is that we always have hope. The beginning of a season always holds untapped potential and a clean slate on which to scratch some W's. The Seahawks took us all the way this year, and instead of being content with a championship, my battered heart is full of optimism for a World Series or MLS Cup.

Posted in: Beer, Blue, Chocolate, Football, Game, Guinness, Irish, Sports