In the two years I’ve lived in this house, our landlady has gone above and beyond. She’s gotten us our turkey each Thanksgiving, she gives us boxes of biscuits for Christmas and, my first birthday here away from home, she threw me a wee bbq birthday party, complete with Godiva chocolate cake (which was DIVINE) – in short, she’s pretty cool.
This year, I decided that since I got my new Kitchen Aid (translation: am totally addicted to baking) that I’d make the staff of her tele-communications equipment company a few cupcakes (cause that’s just how I roll!)
I happened upon this recipe for Guinness gingerbread and cranberry cupcakes with Cream cheese frosting and decided that it was PERFECT!
| Cupcakes: | |
| 1 | cup Guinness or dark beer |
| 1 | cup mild-flavored (light) molasses |
| 1½ | teaspoons baking soda |
| 2 | cups all-purpose flour |
| 2 | tablespoons ground ginger |
| 1½ | teaspoons baking powder |
| ¾ | teaspoon ground cinnamon |
| ¼ | teaspoon ground cloves |
| ¼ | teaspoon ground nutmeg |
| ⅛ | teaspoon ground cardamom |
| 3 | large eggs |
| ½ | cup sugar |
| ½ | cup dark brown sugar – (packed) |
| ¾ | cup vegetable oil |
| 3 | cups fresh cranberries |
| CANDIED CRANBERRIES: | |
| 1½ | cup water |
| ½ | cup sugar plus more for rolling |
| 1 | cup fresh cranberries |
For Candied Cranberry Garnish: (I didn’t make this)
In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, dissolve sugar into 1 ½ cups water. Lower heat to barley a simmer. Add cranberries and simmer for 5 minutes, or until softened. Remove from heat and strain cranberries. Discard liquid. When cranberries are cool enough to handle, roll in granulated sugar. Place on waxed paper.
For Cake: Line 24 cupcakes with paper holders. Bring stout and molasses to boil in heavy medium saucepan over high heat. Remove from heat; stir in baking soda. Let stand 45 minutes to 1 hour to cool completely. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk flour and next 6 ingredients in large bowl to blend. Whisk eggs and both sugars in medium bowl to blend. Whisk in oil, then stout mixture. Gradually whisk stout-egg mixture into flour mixture. Stir in fresh cranberries. Using ice cream scoop, fill cupcakes 2/3rds full.
NOTE: Following the instructions for adding the cranberries, I ended up with a batch filled with cranberries and a batch with only a couple. I think if I were to repeat the recipe, I’d leave out the mixing in the cranberries, and sprinkle a couple in each little case instead!
Bake until tester inserted into centers of cakes comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool 15 minutes. Invert cupcakes onto racks; cool. (Can be made 1 day ahead, wrapped in plastic and keep at room temperature.) Frost cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and garnish with candied cranberries.
As for the Frosting, man, I had such a hard time with this stuff! I eventually (after 3 full batches of frosting) discovered that low-fat or fat-free cream cheese does NOT work for cream cheese frosting!
Turns out, you need the fat to bind it together and keep it from being runny!
I also had my proportions off, my friend Amber saved me…
This is her recipe:
To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the vanilla extract. Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth. Frost cooled cupcakes as desired.
I really need to work on my frosting skills so the dog-turd appearance is lessened going forward!
My beer pedant says it should read “stout” instead of “dark beer”….
They look delicious!
Not everyone here has access to stout, so people write dark beer in recipes so that if they can’t find ‘stout’ the option of dark beer can be substituted! 🙂
I didn’t like them *gasp* but Col, Magz and Sam all loved them! I don’t know if my landlady did or not!
Well, it would be a funny old world if we all liked the same. 😀
That’s indeed true!!