Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I really should know better than to bake when I’m under the weather.  Because for sure, when I’m short on patience, things are bound to get botched up.

Thank goodness not everything I touched this past weekend was a complete loss.

But, I have to tell you, sometimes even the simplest recipes can be a labor of love.

So, despite the pesky kitchen monsters who seemed determined to trash my recipe, I was still able to muddle up these fantastically moist, chocolately, Guinness Extra Stout cupcakes.

But boy-oh-boy, did I learn a thing or ten in the process (did I mention that I really should NOT cook when I don’t feel good?):

1. The #1 thing I know for sure is…if I’m attempting any culinary activity in the kitchen when I don’t feel well, things are 100% percent certain, for sure, going to go horribly wrong;
2. When a recipe says ‘melted butter’, it means melt the butter until it’s all completely melted.  Because when almost completely melted butter makes an appearance, it gets quite unruly and solidifies when mixed with ice cold beer;
3. Know that you won’t realize this until after you’ve poured it into your muffin tins… (yes, I should’ve noticed much sooner, but I don’t feel good, mmm k?);
4. Then, when you try to pour lumpy batter out from said-filled-muffin-tin into a round bowl (to get that unruly butter melted and behavin’ appropriately, ya know?), 99.997% of the batter will miss the bowl (yes, I should’ve stopped pouring when I knew where this was headed);
5. I’ve learned that I can’t crack a simple egg without incident involving shells, which is why I must crack them into a ‘training’ bowl first;
6. I shouldn’t have been surprised when precisely 1 minute after removing my apron, I dribbled melted chocolate all over the front of myself;
7. About 2 minutes into frosting the cupcakes, I quickly realized that I’ve done a LOT more fun things in my life than wrangle a pastry bag;
8. And yes, this lead me to learn that…you actually can find icing in places you didn’t know you had;
9. I now know that using Creme De Menthe liquor to turn the icing minty fresh and a St. Patrick’s day green, does in fact, make your icing look like Pepto BizMint and taste medicinal ~ and certainly does not, in any way shape or form, look St. Patrick’s Day-like nor festive.  Hurumph!  And, last…but not least;
10. It takes 10x’s longer to clean the kitchen when you’re digging icing out of places you didn’t know you had (see Item #8).

But, enough about me.  Let’s get on to the recipe, shall we?

What I absolutely did love about this recipe is how simple it was to make. The ingredients go together quickly, it bakes perfectly at 24 minutes and leaves you with a really moist, chocolately, double-stout cupcake and the Guinness beer mixed with the chocolate will make your house smell heavenly and amazing when they bake.  They really are fool-proof.

Unless, of course, I’m baking them.

Enjoy!

Print Recipe

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time25 mins

Total Time40 mins

Course: Desserts

Servings: 18

Author: CJ

Ingredients

Cupcake Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 bottle Guinness stout beer preferably @ room temperature
• 1 stick butter melted
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract*
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup sour cream

Icing Ingredients

• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 - 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 1-pound box confectioners sugar (roughly 4 cups)

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a large mixing bowl, mix the cocoa, sugar, flour, baking soda and salt until thoroughly mixed.
• In a medium-sized bowl, combine the stout beer, melted butter and vanilla. Beat in eggs, adding one at a time. Mix in sour cream and mix thoroughly until smooth.
• Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.
• Lightly grease cupcake or muffin tins. Pour batter into muffin tins, filling to 3/4 full. Bake for 12 minutes, then rotate the pan in the oven, and bake an additional 12 minutes.
• Remove from oven and let cool before taking them out of the muffin tin.

Icing Instructions

• In a medium-sized bowl, beat the cream cheese with a hand mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add the heavy cream, continuing to mix on low. Add the confectioner's sugar, one cup at a time, and mix thoroughly until smooth. Frost immediately or cover and refrigerate icing until ready to use.

Notes

*I use Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Bean Paste for it's amazing flavor profile. Be sure to completely melt your butter before adding it to the Guinness stout beer, otherwise the butter may solidify leaving lumps in your batter.

Recipe from Food Network, recipe @ Chocolate Stout Cupcakes.