Beer lovers gather around, these delicious chocolate stout cupcakes are for you!
Even if you are not a beer drinker we are not excluding you from this recipe. These heavenly chocolate stout cupcakes are for you too, so please keep reading!
St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner so I thought it would be fun to share this recipe for chocolate stout cupcakes. They are made with dutch cocoa infused with deep dark stout beer which makes them light and fluffy, yet moist, rich and delicious.
There are three reasons why these cupcakes are so deliciously rich:
- Guinness Stout
- Dutch Cocoa Powder
- The Icing
Allow me to elaborate a little more…
The Stout Beer
If you are not a beer drinker it is totally fine. The cupcakes only have a slight hint of stout flavor, but that delicious flavor complements the chocolate very well. The stout accentuates the chocolate, while the carbonation helps to lighten up the texture of the cupcake. The dark cupcakes look like they would be heavy and dense, but that couldn’t be further from the true texture of this cupcake. They are so light and fluffy your lips almost bounce.
For this recipe, I used Guinness Stout. My love affair with Guinness began a few short months ago. David and I frequent a local tapas bar in town. One night we stopped by for dessert. The bartender recommended the beer to me. It was love at first swallow! I could kick myself for letting David’s opinion keep me from trying this dark potion of frothy goodness.
Although David doesn’t like Guinness, he loves these cupcakes. To me, Guinness is like a cold thirst-quenching milkshake, which is the perfect reason to use it to make cupcakes! However any dark stout beer will work, so use your favorite. Stouts, milk stout, and chocolate stouts work the best. Even a dark, rich porter would work well in this recipe.
Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder
It is important to use Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder when making this recipe. I don’t want to bore anyone with a food science class here. So I will try my best to simplify the definition.
Basically there are two types of cocoa powder: Dutch processed and Natural.
Dutch processed cocoa means that the cocoa beans have been washed in an alkaline solution of potassium carbonate. This neutralizes the acidity of the cocoa, making it neutral, so it does not react with baking soda. Dutch cocoa has a rich dark color, mellow flavor and readily dissolves into liquids a lot easier than natural cocoa powder.
As the name suggests, natural cocoa powder is natural. It is the natural powder from roasted cocoa beans. It is acidic and bitter with a strong chocolate flavor. Natural cocoa powder is used with recipes with baking soda when you want your baked goods to rise.
For this recipe, I recommend using Guittard Cocoa Powder. My friend Beth turned me on to this Dutch cocoa powder a while back. It’s an intense bittersweet Dutch cocoa powder with a rich, deep-red color. The chocolate flavor is robust and fudge-like. I chose to use the cocoa powder because I love the color and I really don’t like eating things that are black. It isn’t appetizing to me because makes me think of licorice (which I hate) or something that is burnt.
You can read more about cocoa powder in this article by Serious Eats.
The Icing
I’ll be honest, I’ve had this green cake icing in the cabinet since Christmas. You know our recipes, we are all about whole food ingredients, so I don’t usually buy this type of thing. I had an idea for a dessert at Christmas time that didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted and I never used it.
The cake icing was my motivation for trying these cupcakes. I didn’t want to waste the money I paid for it. Besides, the green reminded me of St. Patrick’s Day. The icing came with plastic decorating tips that go on the end of the nozzle so I freehanded a four-leaf clover on top of each cupcake.
You could use any cake icing you want though. There are dozens of icing and frosting recipes that can be found online. Buttercream, chocolate fudge, peanut butter or even some of that caramel sauce I put on cheesecake would be heavenly on top of these cupcakes. But next time I’m going for the booze, with a nip of Irish whiskey or Bailey’s Irish cream liqueur for some really boozy cupcakes. Next time, I’m going for the booze!
These chocolate cupcakes seem really fancy, but they are so easy to make. Let’s bake a batch together!
How To Make Chocolate Stout Cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cupcake tin with 12 liners; set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until well combined.
Next, in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the melted/cooled butter, eggs, beer, and vanilla extract.
With the mixer running, gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients on medium speed, until the batter is smooth and silky; about 30 seconds.
Use a 2-inch ice cream scoop to divide the cupcake batter into the prepared cupcake tin. Fill each cupcake mold about ¾-inch full.
Place the cupcake tin into the preheated oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when poked into the center of the cupcakes.
Remove the cupcakes from the oven and allow them to cool completely on a wire rack. When the cupcakes are cool, decorate them with green cake icing, if desired.
Whether you like beer or not, make these cupcakes. They are so good they won’t last long!
p.s. If you’re a stout beer lover, you won’t need the whole beer, so make these cupcakes when you can drink the rest of the beer!
Chocolate Stout Cupcakes
Ingredients
- ½ cup dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 ¼ cups sugar
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick) melted and cooled
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup dark stout beer such as Guinness (see notes)
- 2 tablespoons dark stout beer such as Guinness (see notes)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Green Cake Icing store-bought or homemade (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cupcake tin with 12 liners; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until well combined.
- Next, in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the melted/cooled butter, eggs, beer, and vanilla extract.
- With the mixer running, gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients on medium speed, until the batter is smooth and silky; about 30 seconds.
- Use a 2-inch ice cream scoop to divide the cupcake batter into the prepared cupcake tin. Fill each cupcake mold about ¾-inch full.
- Place the cupcake tin into the preheated oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when poked into the center of the cupcakes.
- Remove the cupcakes from the oven and allow them to cool completely on a wire rack.
- When the cupcakes are cool, decorate them with green cake icing, if desired.
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