How to- Chocolate Stoup Cupcakes

So... Still working on Alaska pictures.. but I have a recipe that will satiate you till they come! How about Chocolate Stout Cupcakes? I was asked by the Handsome Gentleman Friend to make these cupcakes for this work. So yesterday I spent most of the day in the kitchen. I really love baking. especially when it involves cupcakes and mini cupcakes.

So this is the recipe that was sent to me... It was SUPPOSED to be for 2 dozen.. turns out its for 4 dozen... so i made 2 dozen regular cupcakes and 4 dozen minis, because who doesn't love mini muffin tins? Also watch out for Joannes Coupons because they have the CUUUUUTEST cupcake liners, and you can get 75-100 for $1.90 out the door.

Chocolate Stout Cake

Cake

• 2 cups stout (such as Guinness, I used out Choconut Stout homebrew)
• 2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder

• 4 cups all purpose flour

• 4 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cups sour cream

Icing

• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1 pound bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped

Preparation

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans with 2-inch-high sides. Line with parchment paper. For Cupcakes prep tins with liners

Butter paper. Bring 2 cups stout and 2 cups butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter equally among prepared pans.

Bake cakes until tester inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer cakes to rack; cool 10 minutes. Turn cakes out onto rack and cool completely.

For full sized cupcakes bake 18-20 minutes and mini cupcakes bake 9-12

For icing:
Bring cream to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chopped chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Refrigerate until icing is spreadable, stirring frequently, about 2 hours.

Place 1 cake layer on plate. Spread 2/3 cup icing over. Top with second cake layer. Spread 2/3 cup icing over. Top with third cake layer. Spread remaining icing over top and sides of cake.

I didn't wait for it to cool completely, and ended up dipping the tops of the cakes in it. they came out looking REALLY nice, but i have a ton of frosting left

What I did New Years and Angry Rant

Hello all! So a lot of people including myself, are doing the year review, but what did you do for new years? I worked part of the night and made some MAD comission... but dear lowd we needed more coverage... Then the GF picked me up from downtown (such a brave hero!!) and we headed over to Katherine's. It was a low key night of Cards Against Humanity, Mangria, and delightful chatter. I was dressed in my Silver Sequined Dress and GF wore his AMAZING silver suit. He looks epic.

 Also, I made Grade Soda Cupcakes. (the webpage has a ton of ads that slow it down, so i suggest copy paste and RUUUUN!!! Actually here)

I made 1/2 a batch and it made almost 50 mini cupcakes.. and I didnt food color them or frost them because i ran out of time....

Ingredients Needed:

1 cup of butter
2 cups of sugar
4 eggs
4 cups of cake flour
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 3/4 cups of grape pop

Neon Food coloring pack

Ingredients for The Best Buttercream Icing Ever

Purple colored sugar

Cream the butter and sugar until well blended. Add  your eggs one at a time, mixing well after each is added, then add in the vanilla.

Whisk the flour, baking soda,salt and baking powder together in a small bowl.

This is where the food coloring comes in. First, let’s not pretend there is anything remotely healthy about these cupcakes, so let’s not worry about dye. We just poured grape soda into the mix. Some dye is really not going to tip the balance.

On the neon package there are combos to make all sorts of colors. Choose the purple one you like then add the drops -according to the instructions on the package needed to achieve your chosen color- to the grape soda. The grape soda alone will not color these cupcakes. I put in a triple dose of the purple to make the batter color you see in these pictures.

Once you are done that, add the dry mixture to the butter/egg/sugar alternately with the grape soda pop.

And this is what you get. If it’s not dark enough, quickly mix in another batch of food coloring.

Pour into cupcake liners about 3/4 full. These are a thicker, moist cupcake and they do not rise a lot. I made most of these into mini cupcakes in small muffin tins and those can bake up anywhere from 10-15 minutes, a lot faster than large ones.

Bake at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes. Cool completely.

Voila.  Purple inside.

Of course, you use my Best Buttercream Icing Ever recipe and decorate these little beauties with a swirly top. I am developing an affinity for mini cupcakes lately, they are just the right size for kids and adults alike and the smallness just makes them so dang cute you can’t resist them.

Once they are iced, sprinkle the tops with the colored sugar.

This made one and half dozen large and 2 dozen minis. This will make 3 dozen large cupcakes and about a bazillion mini’s. Really. I can’t count that high. But let’s go with a decent 7 dozen.

I’m not going to lie to you, these are such a kid pleaser it’s unbelievable. We took almost two dozen mini’s to a playdate and the kids were in seventh heaven.  The flavor is good, they do actually taste quite a bit grape pop-ish and the look, oh my friends, the look is what really makes these adorable. The shrieks of joy from eating “a purple cupcake!” will resonate through the house – and that’s just the adults-  little hands will gleefully scoop up two at a time and that crunchy purple sugar..well…

..it just takes the cake.

Love,

The Purple is my Favorite Color Magpie

I liked them ALOT!! And they were a huge hit both for the get together and to work. And to transport them I used some old Egg Crates!! Worked perfectly. I REALLY do love my mini cupcake tin. Its the best for everything... I make brownies, cupcakes, cheesecakes, cornbread, etc. Its great for events because you can basically double the servings simply by making them tiny, more fun to eat and way easier to transport. plus they cook faster...

Ok, now for my angry rant. WTF is up with the Facebook???!?!?!? They keep "updating" and its just turning into a bloated, glitchy, ad. it regularly hides people I want to see in favor of paid sponsors, crashing on my retarded phone, and everytime they add a feature it forces me back to it over and over and over till I f*ing enbrace it or want to kill myself... 

uuugghhhh....

Im about ready to quit. And I made a twitter but Im not sure what to do with it... is it facebook light? Anywho Im

@untidyvenus 

    !