Guiness Cupcakes with Macadamia Frosting

Guinness = delicious, and cupcakes = delicious. So Guinness cupcakes should be stellar, right? A good friend who is a fellow Guinness lover had a medical procedure done where he couldn't eat/drink for awhile, so I thought I would make him some cupcakes for when he got home. And I figured it would be ok to make a dozen of them since my brother and his wife came in later that day. The point being that I knew I wouldn't eat them all because I had enough people to help me.


I found this great recipe on Dulcedo for Guinness Cupcakes with Baily's Irish Cream Frosting and I had to make it. Evidently it's actually from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, which was an excellent gift from a great friend for my 10 year cancer survivorship anniversary. I must have been too busy ogling the hazelnut cupcakes to notice the stout cupcakes.



Ingredients for Cupcakes

• 3/4 cup soy milk


• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar


• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour


• 1/3 cup unprocessed cocoa powder (original recipe calls for Dutch-processed)


• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda


• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder


• 1/4 teaspoon salt


• 1/4 cup Guinness


• 3/4 cup sugar


• 1/3 cup canola oil


• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I omitted this because I'm running low)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.


In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together the soy milk and the vinegar. Add the Guinness, sugar, oil, and vanilla to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy. Add the dry ingredients in two batches and beat until well incorporated.Fill your cupcakes containers of choice 3/4 full.


Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly touched. Transfer to a wire rack and allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.


Icing

I got lazy and made a simple icing:

• 2-3 cups confectioner's sugar


• 2 TB macadamia liqueur


• Splash of vanilla soy milk

Mix together and enjoy.

These were solid chocolate cupcakes. I think I overdid it with the icing- it's incredibly sweet and may detract from the cake. There was a nice thing crunch on top where I evidently overcooked them, but I think it made them better. And you cannot taste the (very minimal amount of) Guinness.