Guinness Cupcakes

So back to my grandfather's 90th birthday party (you remember, the one with the horrible pictures, haha) & it's Vintage Beer Dessert Table...One of the things I made was Guinness cupcakes.  Of course Pinterest was involved & I found a great recipe on the Le Petit Pierogi blog.  

You know from my other desserts that I am not big on making things from scratch (one day, I swear), so this was a big step for me. ; )  I gathered the following: 1 cup Guinness (definitely snagged from the hubby's beer fridge), 1 cup unsalted butter, 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 cups all purpose flour, 2 cups sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 2 large eggs, and 2/3 cup sour cream.  

Then you just preheat your oven to 350°F.  While your oven is preheating, in a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and add Guinness, bringing it to a simmer. Whisk in cocoa powder until mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool slightly while you mix the other stuff together.  

In a large bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt.  Now the blog recipe I followed suggested using the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, but since I am not a real baker, I don't have such a thing.  So I used the biggest bowl I had & a hand mixer & I beat eggs and sour cream until thoroughly combined.  It seemed to work out fine although I am thinking I would like one of those fancy stand mixers one day.  On low speed, you drizzle in the Guinness-chocolate mixture and beat just to combine it.  Then you add in your flour mixture, a little at a time, and mix briefly on slow speed just until the mixture comes together.  (I am glad that the recipe calls for "low" & "slow" speeds because I am pretty sure my poor hand mixer can only handle a couple of different options).  Using a rubber spatula (I was impressed that I actually had one of these), you fold the batter until completely combined. 

Line 24 cupcake cups with liners.  Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.  It took about 15 minutes in my oven.  Most ovens seem to vary.  Only you probably know how truthful your oven is.  After the cupcakes had cooled, I went to icing.  Now the Le Petit Pierogi blog has a great recipe for Bailey's Irish Buttercream frosting that I wish I had set aside time to make.  I think they even have a link to some ganache for the cupcakes.  Both of those sound amazing, but I was running out of time & energy, so store-bought chocolate chunk fudge icing it was.  It was delicious, so there you go.  Next time I am feeling fancy though, I definitely want to try to make that icing. 

These cupcakes were really tasty & not too beer tasting at all.  They would be great for Father's day or a birthday or something.  Definitely good for something different to try than the usual cupcake suspects.