Chocolate Stout Cupcakes (because you know you want some)

I'm not joking. When my friend K mentioned during a run that she'd seen a recipe for Guinness cupcakes, I knew I'd seen a recipe at We Are Not Martha and it was then decided that my St. Patty's Day baking would consist of Guinness...and chocolate.

So, last night I followed this recipe from Food Network. Holy yum. I just ate two with frosting, and that's saying something because this girl usually despises frosting. But this was just the perfect mix of cream cheese, whipping cream and powdered sugar.

I'm feeling a bit better. Manfriend came home after work and left me to head out with a group for 50 miles on the bike on a Wednesday evening. Pure craziness. I stayed in and watched The Answer Man on netflix and then took the dog for a 30 min walk while catching up with T. Then, I headed for the kitchen and got down to business.

It went from this...

To this. Oh, chocolatey goodness...


An then the icing


And finally, the finished product!


And now for the recipe...

Ingredients
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa, plus more for dusting finished cupcakes
2 cups sugar (I used half brown sugar and half white)
2 cups all-purposeflour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch fine salt
1 bottle stout beer (recommended: Guinness)
1 stick butter, melted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sour cream
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened at room temperature
3/4 to 1 cup heavy cream
1 (1-pound) box confectioners' sugar (I used waaay less...maybe 2 cups)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, sugar, flour, baking soda, and salt.

In another medium mixing bowl, combine the stout, melted butter, and vanilla. Beat in eggs, 1 at time. Mix in sour cream until thoroughly combined and smooth. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet mixture.

Lightly grease 24 muffin tins. Divide the batter equally between muffin tins, filling each 3/4 full. Bake for about 12 minutes and then rotate the pans. Bake another 12 to 13 minutes until risen, nicely domed, and set in the middle but still soft and tender. Cool before turning out.

To make the icing:
In a medium bowl with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese on medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the heavy cream. On low speed, slowly mix in the confectioners' sugar until incorporated and smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use. Icing can be made several hours ahead and kept covered and chilled.

Top each cupcake with a heap of frosting and dust with cocoa.

Manfriend arrived home at 9 PM to which I had prepared some lovely Annie's mac 'n cheese. He promptly sat down and ate (out of the pan) it on my little munchkin kitchen stool.

He then went to work on some cupcakes.




If you can't tell, these cupcakes come highly recommended from men folk. They're the perfect mix of sweet balanced by the smooth taste of the stout. And it doesn't hurt to wash one down with a Guinness (or milk) in your hand.

Hope everyone had a Happy St. Patty's!

Comments

Anonymous said…
ha! i love these pictures. baking with beer never seems to be a bad thing...beer bread is also delicious! (although, it's usually w/o frosting...so these are obviously better ;) )
siri said…
YUM! I forgot about St. Patty's day until it was over! Cute photos of your honey.

Love, Siri Mom
Kayla said…
I need to try this soon!!! I love the idea and feel silly I've never thought of it before!!

http://senseofstyleiseternal.blogspot.com/

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