A Hungry Bear

I’ve had this recipe bookmarked since I saw it back in March on one of my favorite food blogs, Closet Cooking. I like the way this blogger picks a theme or single ingredient and then makes several different things back to back with it. In this case he was doing a lot of St. Patrick’s Day-related recipes, and he modified a few recipes to create a Guinness cake with Bailey’s icing. I adapted his recipe even further by substituting a chocolate stout for the Guinness, and by dividing the batter into cupcakes instead of a single cake. (I also doubled the icing to have enough for 24 cupcakes.) These were every bit as good as I imagined they would be, and A has had at least 3 for breakfast every day since I made them. Oh, and I should mention - they are ridiculously easy to make!

Ingredients: (for the cupcakes) 2 sticks unsalted butter, 1 cup chocolate stout beer (or Guinness), 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 1.5 teaspoons baking soda, 3/4 teaspoons salt, 2 eggs, 2/3 cup sour cream; (for the icing) 1 8-ounce package cream cheese softened to room temperature, 3 tablespoons butter softened to room temperature, 2 cups powdered sugar, 4-6 Tablespoons Bailey’s Irish.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.

Carefully add the cocoa and stout into the melted butter, and stir until smooth.

Stir the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt together in a large measuring cup.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (you could also use a hand mixer of course, but I’ll take any opportunity to use my KitchenAid), mix the eggs and sour cream until blended.

Add the stout-butter mixture into the sour cream base and mix on low speed (2 on the KitchenAid setting) until blended. Slowly add the flour mixture and continue to mix on speed 2 until smooth.

Line 24 cupcake tins and divide the batter between them. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

While the cupcakes are baking, make the frosting.

Using the paddle attachment on your stand mixer, cream the butter and cream cheese together (I use speed 4 for this) until smooth. Turn off the mixer for a second to add the powdered sugar. Turn it back on using the slowest speed until the sugar is incorporated (prevents a mushroom cloud of powdered sugar from exploding all over), then turn the speed up to 4 or 5 and whip until the frosting is fluffy and blended. Keep the machine running on slow speed and drizzle in 4-6 tablespoons of Bailey’s.

When the cupcakes are done, remove them from the oven. As soon as they’re cool enough to handle, pop them out of the cupcake tins and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Spread the icing over the cupcakes. Because of the cream cheese and butter, you’ll want to store these in the fridge.