Early Irish Fest.: Guinness Cupcakes

Cupcake binge?  Cupcake fling?  Cupcake obsession?  We're not sure...  And we're also not sure how long this is going to last, but who cares, right?  As long as they taste good!  And why not make each kind as different as possible?  We already have a few prospective flavors we had to put on the back-burner tonight (due to some failed missions in getting required ingredients, but we won't go into details.  We'll just leave it at... this part of town is not stocked for our high-end taste buds).

Since we're quickly approaching the time of year when little green men, pots of gold, and rainbows are abundant, we thought we'd give a toast to the Irish and make a recipe with the nation's staple food: some good 'ol fashioned Guinness beer!  Can't say either of us enjoy drinking the beer on its own, but baking with this alcohol is a whole new ballgame!  Partially inspired by our lack of Irish Creme and an awesome friend Lindsey who made a tasty Guinness cake a few months back, here is our tribute to the Irish!

We might just even have to enter ourselves on Cupcake Wars...  :)  Is that allowed?

Guinness Cupcake
1 cup Guinness
3/4 cup butter (room temp)
1 cup flour
1 cup cake flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tbs vanilla
2/4 cup sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350.

Combine the flour, cake flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda together and mix.  In a stand mixer, add butter and sugar together and blend until creamed.  Once nice and fluffy, and in the Guinness and mix on low. The texture will look a little funny, but don't be disturbed, that's okay.  Add in the vanilla and eggs and mix.  The batter will still look funny.  :)  Next, mix in the sour cream.  The texture will start to look a little more normal.  Once all incorporated, slowly start to mix in the dry ingredients.  Do not over beat the batter, but make sure all of the dry ingredients are blended in.


Place cupcake liners in the muffin tins and fill about 3/4 of the way (they will look decently full, but shouldn't be spilling over the edge).  This yields about 18 cupcakes.

Bake for 15-16 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs.  You want them to be nice and fluffy looking (no over baking!).  Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before removing from the pans.



Ganache Filling
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup  half-n-half (or heavy cream)
2 tbs butter
1 tbs Guinness

In a saucepan, add chocolate chips and butter and allow to melt on medium-low, constantly stirring.  Once mixture is almost fully melted, add in the Guinness and the half-n-half (or heavy cream).  Continue to stir until all of the chocolate is melted and the mixture is nice and smooth.  If you want it a little thicker, add more chocolate or less liquid.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, remove the insides of the cupcakes making about a 3/4" hole about 1" deep. It'll be a little crater.  :)  We used the 1/4 and 1/2 teaspoon measures, since we don't own a cool to do it for us.

Carefully spoon the ganache filling into the holes!  This should be just enough, with a little extra, depending on how deep and wide you make those holes.  We came out with just a little left over.  We didn't want to overdue the ganache and have a chocolate overload on the inside (just a nice, little surprise!).

Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup butter (room temp)
8 oz cream cheese (room temp)
1 tsp vanilla
green food coloring (optional... but FUN!)
powdered sugar (approx 1 - 1 1/2 cups)

In a stand mixer, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.   Add in vanilla and food coloring (if desired).  Mix until blended and slowly add powdered sugar until you reach the desired consistency for your frosting.

Now frost those guys and eat 'em!!!