Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes
A couple weeks ago, I polled members of Rachel’s Kitchen Conversations for what flavors or foods they especially look forward to for St. Patrick’s Day. I got several expected answers like corned beef and soda bread, an adventurous one of pip and squeak, and then one that make my jaw drop. My friend Jen, who is an amazing home-baker, shared about her “ridiculously indulgent” Guinness chocolate cupcakes.
She explained that it was a guinness chocolate cake, Jameson-spiked ganache filling, and Bailey’s Irish Cream frosting. I knew this was a cupcake I needed to get my hands on! I had never combined beer and chocolate before, and I’m almost always on board with anything that includes ganache. Needless to say, I was very excited to do some experimenting with her recipe!
Chocolate & Guinness…
In the quadruple chocolate brownies, the bitterness of the coffee reacts with the chocolate, enhancing and deepening the chocolate flavor. Using the dark stout has the same effect! Some variations of Guinness have chocolate undertones, which also make it a natural pairing. The addition of Guinness gives this cake an intense and complex chocolate flavor!
If you aren’t a dark beer fan (like me), don’t worry! You won’t taste much – if any – Guinness in the cupcake. You will taste a rich, chocolatey flavor. There’s only enough Guinness beer to exploit the chocolate enhancing properties, without leaving a bitter beer aftertaste.
Blooming the chocolate…
To bloom the chocolate, we combine cocoa powder with the stout beer, over heat, allowing the flavors infuse and develop together. Blooming amplifies the cocoa’s chocolate flavor without adding more actual chocolate. This mixture will be added directly into the eggs, so it is important to cool it slightly to avoid scrambling.
The Mixing Process…
Mixing this cake is very similar to mixing a banana bread or muffin recipe. We combine all the wet ingredients, and then gently stir in the dry ingredients. It comes together quickly, and no special equipment is needed! The perk of this mixing method is that because we don’t combine the flour with the liquids until the very end, gluten doesn’t get a chance to develop. This keeps the cake soft and tender.
When almost all the white streaks of flour are mixed in, fold in the chopped chocolate. In other words, don’t wait until it’s completely mixed, or you could end up over mixing.
It’s important that you use bar or couverture chocolate for this step. We want it to melt into the batter, making it even more chocolatey. Chocolate chips are designed to hold their shape, and won’t melt into the cake like a chopped bar will. My go-to bars are Ghirardelli chocolate bars.
Making Cupcakes…
One thing that I always use when I make cupcakes – or anything that’s individual – is a stainless steel scoop. This ensures everything is the same size, which is not only great for appearance, but it’s imperative to the baking process! If you have 12 cupcakes that are varied in size, they won’t be fully baked at the same time. Consistent sizes give you consistent results!
This Week’s Feature Dessert…
This week, I’m combining these super rich, Guinness chocolate cupcakes with a Jamison-spiked chocolate ganache, and a swirl of Bailey’s Irish cream frosting. You might notice a theme, and while this is perfect for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, there’s no reason this can’t become your go-to chocolate cupcake recipe, year round!
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Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 220 g Guinness stout beer
- 224 g butter room temperature
- 63 g cocoa powder
- 104 g eggs
- 151 g sour cream
- 293 g all purpose flour
- 404 g sugar
- 5 g salt
- 9 g baking soda
- 150 g dark chocolate baking bar (or 1 1/2 bars) coarsely chopped
Instructions
- Over low heat, combine beer and butter. Once butter is completely melted, whisk in cocoa powder. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
- In large mixing bowl, whisk eggs and sour cream together until completely incorporated.
- Whisk in beer mixture, fully incorporating.
- Add flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder to wet mixture, folding until most white streaks are gone.
- Fold in chopped chocolate, until evenly incorporated, and no more white streaks appear.
- Preheat oven to 350
- Prepare cupcake liners and fill 2/3 full with batter. (Large 3T scoop will yield 30 cupcakes)
- Bake 18-20 minutes, or until toothpick is clean and cake bounces back when touched.
- Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
- Frost or glaze as desired.
how would i go about scaling this to make a 10 inch 8 inch and a 6 inch for a party i am having. I will be using the Wilton pans? same question for the Baileys Irish Cream Butter Cream Icing? Thanks in advance.
That’s a great question, Denis! I haven’t tried this recipe as a cake, but an average 10” cake should have between 680-800 grams of batter, an 8” should have 400-510 grams, and a 6” should have 230-285 grams. The recipe as written is 1425 grams. I would probably double it just to be safe, and if you have way too much batter, you can always bake extra cake or cupcakes for the freezer! I’d probably double the frosting to start, as well, but that also depends on if you are cutting and filling layers, or just covering the outside. I’d love to see how it turns out! Please keep us posted! 🙂
Thank you for the quick reply. When I am done with it I will be glad to send pictures. As for the centers I am doing Vanilla Bean Pastry Cream on one a Raspberry jam. I’m doing a 4 inch trial run this weekend.
That sounds amazing! I can’t wait to hear all about it!
Here is a 4 inch cake I made from this recipe.
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=12sChQnY3WHICYbKuybbuJKlV_C07Tvqw
Looks great, Denis! Did you get to try it yet?!
Yes I had extra batter so I made cupcakes. I piped into the center of the cupcake raspberry Jam and it was amazing with all of the flavors.
So fun! Thanks so much for sharing!
I made these for my daughter’s 21st birthday (paired with the Irish whiskey ganache and a Swiss meringue buttercream flavored with Bailey’s) and they were hands-down the best cupcakes I’ve ever made. I followed the cake recipe to a T– no alterations or substitutions. They were the perfect adult cupcake (but even the kids loved them)!