Guinness Stout and Chocolate Cupcakes for St. Patrick’s Day!

Greetings from Savannah, Georgia!  The Bunkycooks traveled to Savannah for Go Savor this weekend.  We met up with some old friends and met some new ones for a delightful culinary weekend to relax, eat, drink (and drink and eat!) and learn a few things about food photography (details to come later this week).

If you leave these with us we will eat all of them!

Of course, this weekend happened to coincide with the beginnings of the totally out of control St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.  Savannah celebrates St. Patrick’s Day in a big way and as few other cities do.  There are parades and much boozing and drunkenness merriment (as witnessed by our inability to sleep Friday evening in our hotel).

I don't need any more temptation than this!

St. Patrick’s Day is March 17th (this Thursday), but hey, who says it has to be limited to one day?  Why not make a week out of the festivities (like they do in Savannah!)?!  😉

Who needs Guinness when you can have these?

We seem to have a very timely knack for visiting towns right before the major event begins (just as we did with New Orleans and Mardi Gras).  Could there be a pattern to this behavior?!

Remember this guy from New Orleans? He was celebrating early!

I prepared these totally addictive cupcakes before we headed out on our big adventure.  Thank goodness I could leave them with friends, neighbors and my dog sitter…I would have consumed all of them!

These cupcakes are chocolaty, moist and have a subtle hint of the Guinness Stout.  There is nuance of coffee flavor.  The cream cheese frosting is the perfect accompaniment, although Mr. B says he enjoyed them just fine without since they were so moist.  It’s a darn good thing we gave them away…we would have eaten them all.  Shhh….we did sneak a few for the ride to the coast!

McBeamer enjoys St. Partick's Day too!

If you are looking for a Saint Patrick’s Day baked good, these are a wonderful boozy cupcake!

Cheers and drink up!

If you are in search of a dinner menu for St. Patrick’s Day, then you should look at these recipes as well.  This Gaelic Steak dish was phenomenal!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Gaelic Steak Flambe and Irish Camp

Bailey’s Ice Cream with Chocolate Shavings

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes

Adapted slightly from Dave Lieberman

Ingredients:

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa, plus more for dusting finished cupcakes
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch fine salt
1 12 ounce bottle stout beer, at room temperature (recommended: Guinness)
1 stick butter, melted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup sour cream
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened at room temperature
3/4 to 1 cup heavy cream
1 (1-pound) box confectioners' sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, sugar, flour, baking soda, and salt.

In another medium mixing bowl, combine the stout, melted butter, and vanilla. Beat in eggs, 1 at time. Mix in sour cream until thoroughly combined and smooth. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet mixture.

Lightly grease 24 muffin tins. Divide the batter equally between muffin tins, filling each 3/4 full. Bake for about 12 minutes and then rotate the pans. Bake another 12 to 13 minutes until risen, nicely domed, and set in the middle but still soft and tender. Cool before turning out.

To make the icing:

In a medium bowl with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese on medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the heavy cream. On low speed, slowly mix in the confectioners' sugar until incorporated and smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use. Icing can be made several hours ahead and kept covered and chilled.

Top each cupcake with a heap of frosting and dust with cocoa.(

*Cooks Notes: If you make this frosting with 3/4 cups of heavy cream, you will have a very soft frosting. I needed to add another 1/2 pound confectioner's sugar to get the proper consistency to decorate the cupcakes. I would suggest you use less cream and add it until you reach the desired consistency.

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