Stout Cupcakes

Happy (Belated) Saint Patrick’s Day everyone! I hope you beautiful people all had a fun, and safe, St. Patty’s Day! I sure did. I spent the morning driving back from California with my boyfriend; then we went to Rula Bula on Mill Avenue for some beer and food. If you are EVER in Tempe, Arizona you MUST go to this Irish pub. Their food is AMAZING, and the atmosphere is awesome. It is one of mine, and many of my friends, favorite places to go to for a drink, good food, sweet music, and a fun time. I got the corn beef and cabbage.

Alex got the shepherd’s pie.

Both were absolutely delicious. After dinner we met up with some friends and headed to Tempe Town Lake for the Flogging Molly concert. THEY WERE AMAZING. Anyways, I meant for this post to go up before I left for California, but I was so busy with errands and packing that I didn’t have time for it. So, I am posting it now – better late than never, right?
 

These stout cupcakes are to die for. The batter is not like your typical cake batter. The recipe calls for oil instead of butter, and there is no milk/buttermilk in it. However, there is Guinness and molasses – which combine to make one freaking awesome cupcake! Instead of the cupcakes being light and airy, they turn out very moist and dense (and delicious). Plus, they make your kitchen smell divine when they are baking in the oven (it’s reason enough to bake these bad boys as soon as possible). I feel like these cupcakes would be perfect to make during fall and winter because they have cinnamon and nutmeg in them; there is something about those spices that just warm me up!

Stout Cupcakes
(Recipe from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients:
3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 ¼ teaspoon nutmeg*
1 ¼ cups vegetable oil
1 ¼ cups unsulfured molasses
½ cups plus 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
2 large whole eggs
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
1 ¼ cups Guinness

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F and line muffin tins with paper liners. In a medium sized bowl sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

In a separate bowl, beat together oil, molasses, brown sugar, whole eggs, egg yolk, zest, and Guinness on medium-low, until combined. Gradually add the flour mixture.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups. Bake for 20-22 minutes, rotating once. Let cupcakes cool on wire racks and then glaze them.

Stout Glaze:
(Recipe from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients:
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
¼ cups Guinness

Directions:
Whisk together Guinness and powdered sugar until well combined. Use Immediately.

 * I only had a 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg, so I substituted the rest for all spice.

Peanut Cupcakes

Before I start rambling first let me apologize for two things.

One: My pictures are horrible. I was very stressed, very excited, and very unorganized during this baking experiment. I was so focused on what I was doing that I didn’t really take many pictures, and the few I did are terrible.

Second: I don’t have a specific recipe for the frosting to give you. I just kind of winged it. There was lots and lots of tasting involved (which led to the most ridiculous sugar rush I have ever had in my entire twenty two years of living). And because the frosting was winged – and I was so focused on the taste – I don’t have a picture of it either. I know. I’m sorry.

But seriously, let's get down to business.  Meet Kate, and meet Kate’s mom, Ann (Mrs. Helms).

Aren’t they both lovely? They both have a very dear spot in my heart. I’ve known Kate since we were freshmen in high school. She is one of my best friends. And Mrs. Helms has been like a second mother to me. Now what inspired this post tonight is something that Mrs. Helms makes for her family. Let me tell you it is absolutely DELICIOUS.

Enter peanut cake:

Now just listen here. This cake is a white cake that has every inch of it (top, bottom, and all four sides) covered in coffee frosting, and then every inch of the frosting is covered in chopped peanuts. The combination may sound random; It was to me the first time I was introduced to this cake back in high school. But I must tell you – this combination might be one of the best combinations known to man kind (it falls second to lemon and blueberry, of course. No combination can ever top that one in my heart).

I absolutely HATE peanuts. However, this cake, this combination, this heavenly duo of sweet coffee frosting and crunchy dry peanuts has won me over for life. I really wanted to make this cake in cupcake form…because what’s better than cake? CUPCAKES duh!?!?...so here is my attempt.

I made a simple buttermilk cupcake into something fantastic by creating a peanut crust at the bottom of it, topped it with a hefty serving of coffee frosting, and then covered that with chopped peanuts. Sadly, my dear friend Kate is currently residing in the Midwest, so she could not be here to tell me if my cupcakes live up to her mom’s cake. BUT. My friends and family who have tried these fell in love with them. I hope you do too.

Peanut Cupcakes
(Inspired by Mrs. Helm’s Peanut Cake, Winged by me using Martha Stewart’s Buttermilk Cupcake Recipe)

Ingredients:
3 cups cake flour (not self rising)*
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 ¼ cups sugar
5 large whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks, room temperature
2 cups buttermilk, room temperature**
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
6 cups chopped dry, unsalted peanuts (3 cups for peanut crust, 3 cups to top the frosting)***

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F and line muffin pans with paper liners. Then combine the cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl (use a sifter if possible). Set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar with a miser on medium high speed, until pale and fluffy. Reduce mixer to medium speed and eggs, one at a time, until well incorporated. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Then add the yolks, one at a time, until combined. Reduce speed to low. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the buttermilk. Make sure to start and end with the flour mixture (dry, wet, dry, wet, dry). Finally, beat in the vanilla.

Place 1 spoonful of chopped peanuts in the bottom of the muffin tins. Layer on top about 1 teaspoon of the batter. With a toothpick swirl the batter and the peanuts together (kind of like you would do with a marble cake) that way there is a little bit of batter to bind the peanuts together. You don’t want to completely mix the batter with the peanuts because then there will be no peanut crust. Then fill the remainder of the muffin tin with cake batter.

Bake cupcakes at 350F for 20-22 minutes. Make sure to rotate tins halfway through baking period. When they are done let cupcakes cool in muffin tins for 10 minutes, then remove them and place on a wire rack to completely cool. Once cooled, frost with a heavy amount of coffee frosting, and then cover the frosting with chopped peanuts. Eat.

Like I said earlier, I do not have a specific recipe to give you for the coffee frosting. I just started with a basic vanilla frosting and gradually added instant espresso by the teaspoon until I thought it tasted good.

*If you don’t have cake four, using all-purpose flour for the entire recipe will be fine.
**If you don’t have buttermilk, pour a cup of milk into a bowl and squeeze the juice of one lemon into it. Let it stand for 5 minutes so the acid from the lemon juice allows the milk to curdle and sour. Then measure out the amount you need.
***You may need more, or less, peanuts depending on how much you put on the crust and on top.

Snicker Doodle Cupcakes

Here's the deal: I am a 22 year old college graduate who dreams of one day opening up her own bakery. The only training I have had is the guidance of my mother and grandmothers who instilled the love I have for baking in me at a very young age, and the many Martha Stewart recipes that I have drooled over every time I make them (seriously Martha is a god). Other than that I am a self taught sugar fiend that loves to spend any chance she gets baking – and eating delicious sweets.

My goal: Post one recipe a week in hopes of advancing my baking knowledge.

My fear: Getting fat.

I've spent the past 4 or 5 months reading the blogs of Smitten Kitchen, Joy the Baker, Brunellos Have More Fun, and 17 and Baking. With every blog they posted, I found myself wanting to be a part of this online food blogging society. So with the support of my friends and family I am finally finding the courage to do it. So please bear with me. I ask that you have patience with me in the beginning because this is all very new to me. I can't guarantee that my pictures will be amazing, because they won't, and I can't guarantee that I won't ramble, because I most likely will. I'm excited, nervous, and terrified. Hopefully I won't bore you, and hopefully you'll be inspired to bake one of these recipes your self!

Now to the cupcakes!

These cupcakes are a piece of heaven on earth. ( I know that sounds corny, but it is the absolute truth! ) The cupcakes are so light and airy. Even without the frosting they are so delicious. But who would want a cupcake without frosting? Seriously? That's absurd. Especially this frosting...oh man oh man, it is oh so delicious.

Snicker Doodle Cupcakes
(Recipe from Martha Stewart's Cupcake Book)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour (if you don't have cake flour it is okay to substitute with all-purpose flour)
  
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together both flours, baking powder, salt, and 1 tablespoon cinnamon.


Cream butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Then add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk, and beating until combined after each.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full (I like to use an ice cream scoop to make sure they all come out evenly). Bake, rotating tins halfway through, for about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.


After they've completely cooled frost the tops of each cupcake. I also like to make a cinnamon sugar mix (3 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon cinnamon) and sprinkle a little on top of each cupcake before the frosting hardens.

Vanilla Frosting
(Recipe from Martha Stewart's Cupcake Book)

Ingredients:

• 3 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 4 cups confectioners sugar
  
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Beat butter on medium high speed for two minutes, until pale and creamy. Then add 1/2 cup of confectioner's sugar, beating until well incorporated and scraping down the sides. After each 1 cup of confectioner's sugar added to the butter, turn the mixer on high and beat for ten seconds. Continue to do this until all 4 cups of sugar has been used. This should take about 5 minutes.



*This makes for a very large recipe. I usually halve the recipe when I make one batch of cupcakes.

You know you want to make these. And trust me, you can't eat just one. They are so freaking delicious!