Friday, August 10, 2007

peekfrostings

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes: Shh.. I'm Cheating on My Company

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In the past, when I've brought baked goods anywhere, everyone basically said "mmm.. thanks" and gave positive commentary regardless of what they may have actually thought. However, when you tell someone that you are doing a project to pick the best cupcake and you want honest feedback, everyone seems to go out of their way to put on their best critic hat and come up with some helpful hint.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate every one of them, keep 'em comin'. It is just a source of amusement to me.

Take Person A of the past:
  • Sticks cupcake in mouth.
  • Gets big grin.
  • Provides a cupliment. (Cupliment (n.) - a favorable remark or set of remarks about a cupcake)

Same person with a cupcake project cupcake:

  • Evaluates appearance.
  • Stops and smells.
  • Tastes cake alone
  • Tastes frosting alone.
  • Takes a series of small bites of the combination.
  • Pauses for thought.
  • States, "It was good.. but.." Too much enthusiasm can't be shown because a good critic doesn't give a 10 to many things.
It should also be pointed out that like critics in any field, the commentary can go in any direction. I thought these were extremely moist cupcakes, the bride and groom thought they were a good level of moistness, and the coworkers thought they were dry/coarse. Were we all eating the same thing?

The Cake

I work for the biggest beer company in the USA. It was only a matter of time before I made a beer cupcake. Although, and you can just pretend you didn't see this, I didn't use beer from my company for these cupcakes. I used a great beer, Young's Double Chocolate Stout. Read into this what you wish.

I got the recipe from Big City, Little Kitchen. I just replaced the Guinness with the chocolate stout. Update 12/9/12: Big City Little Kitchen is no longer live.  So, I am including the recipe as I made it below.

Yield 24 cupcakes:

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup chocolate stout
  • 1 stick, plus 1 tb, unsalted butter
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
  • 2 cups dark brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup sour cream
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  2. Combine the chocolate stout and the butter, chopped into 1-inch chunks, in a large sauce pan, and heat to melt the butter.
  3. Remove from heat, and whisk in the cocoa and sugar. 
  4. In a bowl, whisk the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla, then add to the beer mixture.
  5. Sift together the flour and baking soda, and fold into the batter. 
  6. Pour into cupcake tins and bake for 25 minutes, or until inserted cake tester comes out clean.
  7. Let stand 10 minutes, remove from cupcake tin, and cool completely on a rack.

For those of you reading this thinking "eww beer cupcakes", the good news is you can't even taste the beer. It just tastes like a nice, rich, not too sweet chocolate cupcake. For those of you who really wanted to try a strong knock-you-on-your-ass beer flavored cupcake, this probably isn't it.

Whoa.... hold up..... the big big boss just came by my cube where the cupcake Tupperware is sitting. I must point out that he does not know about the project, so of course he is less of a critic. However, he liked them and was so excited about a beer cupcake that he wanted the recipe. Good thing he doesn't know what brand of beer went into them.

Back to your regularly scheduled blogging.

Or not... he's come back to my cube to offer me a recipe of his own. This one is for beer margaritas.




See, I wasn't kidding about the importance of using a certain brand of beer (btw.. I know this recipe is blurry. It's a lesson on what happens when you drink beer.)

The Frosting
The frosting had two parts.

The Glaze:

To be honest, the glaze wasn't meant to be a glaze, but by the time I added enough Double Chocolate Stout to it that you could taste it at all, it was too runny to be anything but a glaze. Luckily, it worked perfectly. It looks like I planned it to be a nice layer of beer foam.

  • 1 8oz package of cream cheese (Don't be lazy and use the cream cheese straight out of the fridge. Wait for it to be room temperature. Who would make a stupid mistake like that and end up with some lumps of cream cheese in the glaze? ummm... me )
  • 1 can of Double Chocolate Stout
  • 4+ cups of powdered sugar
  • 1/4 cup butter
The Icing

The icing swirl at the top is the icing from none other than my Grandma's famous golden glow cake (first mentioned here). This a tried and true winner chocolate frosting.

  • 1 8 oz package of cream cheese
  • 3 T milk
  • 3 C powdered sugar
  • 2 squares of melted unsweetened bakers chocolate
The groom remarked that there wasn't enough of it. The bride shut him down saying she liked seeing the foam effect of the glaze.

Summary

I'll make these again if someone requests them. This time the glaze will be on purpose. I'd really like to try making them with our smaller local beer company's coffee stout (if you like coffee and beer, you should try this beer) and a coffee based frosting.

23 comments:

  1. The glaze 'head' is a great if accidental touch!

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  2. okay - this is gonna seem a little weird but if you are in the beer capital of america did your husband happen to take a art class in the south city area with a extrememly talented artist and and a funny and loveable black guy - who would be my husband - I think he said something about the guy and his wife and a cupcake project and this sounds too much like it for it to be a fluke...

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  3. Ian - Thanks!!

    Raquita - Hah! Yes, the toilet chair is gracing our living room. Did you also know that we just found out that at work Jerry sits right next to one of our good friends. Small world, eh? Did you just randomly find my blog? Hope the pregnancy is going well. I've got lots of extra cupcakes if you act fast. Can you have beer cupcakes if you're pregnant? hmm.. Good luck with pregancy, btw!

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  4. By the way, Flat Branch brewery in Columbia makes an amazing brownie with their Oil Change Stout. Stout and chocolate definitely do go together well.

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  5. The foam effect on the glaze is beautiful. And as your husband's co-worker, he had better make good on your promise of samples.

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  6. Is it supposed to look like someone took a dump on top of that cupcake? Cuz it looks poo-tastic.

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  7. That looks quite artistic. And smart move going with the golden glow icing, meaning they surely taste as good as the look, namely, delicious.

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  8. I know this may be a surprise to you, but poop wasn't exactly the look I was going for. However, it did cross my mind that some of the icing looked a bit turd like, particularly in this photo.

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  9. This is a great cupcake! Not only does it taste great, but it smells great as I bring it close to my mouth.

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  10. Yeah - I found it before Jerry told me about it - he was like - you remember that guy.... and I was like I think I go to that blog already - I have a whole section of cupcake blogs in my google reader - I have no shied away from proof percentage cooked foods as of yet - and while I may have missed these I'll be up for next time -

    pregnancy is GOING - I wish it would come to and end -

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  11. I am posting a little late, so hopefully my memory serves.

    Cake: B+
    Icing: A
    Overall Taste: A-
    Appearance: A-
    Overall A-

    I liked this cupcake overall. I don't particularly love stout but there really wasn't a strong stout taste. The amount was there was very good I thought. Enough that it was present but not overwhelming.
    The icing was a winner which wasn't a surprise. However, my biggest complaint was not the amount, but the placement. Because it was not spread out, I found that I couldn't get both cake/icing on most bites and the icing would end up in the face and not the mount. Sounds crazy, but I heard the same issue from more than one person. I think the icing could be spread out which would help. Overall, a very good cupcake and quite tasty.

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  12. Seeing the recipe from your boss made me think of the hilariousness of a King Cobra cupcake! heh.

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  13. I love the look of these cupcakes- and being Irish I have to try this with Guinness :). I have never heard of chocolate stout but I will be on the lookout from now on. I was in a local restaurant recently and had Guinness and orange ice-cream. It was really good. It contained just enough Guinness to provide a really interesting flavour to compliment the orange without overpowering it. Since then I have been meaning to toy with Guinness flavours on my ice-cream machine. Your cupcake is now on my 'things to make with Guinness' list also

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  14. Guinness and orange? Wow.. that's a different combination. I may have to try that in cupcake form at some point. Hard for me to picture it.

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  15. I made these for a big family Christmas party and they were a huge hit. My uncles, many of whom are Irish, went nuts. I had to use Guinness instead of a chocolate stout, but they still came out well (but, I used your glaze instead of the one on the BCLK website). So ... thanks for sharing and for all the tips! :)

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  16. Alex - Thanks for sharing! I'm so glad to hear it worked out well.

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  17. I tried these out for the Superbowl and they were a huge hit! I also put the little chocolate covered almonds on top, decorated as footballs of course... thanks so much for all the ideas!

    Cat

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  18. Accidental glazes are the best. I pulled one of those with some twix cupcakes I made for my buddy's bday.

    I'm a new fan of your blog! Can't wait to read more.

    Now, if only my booty didn't absorb cupcakes like a sponge absorbs water... I would bake everything on this site ... all in one sitting.

    Mmm...

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  19. hrrmmmmm I just tried the link for the cupcake recipe and it looks to be "not found" :(

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    Replies
    1. Guess that blog is no longer active. I add the recipe to my post.

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  20. I also just tried the link and it was not found.. Can you please post the recipe you used? I'd love to make these for Christmas!! They sound scrumptious!!!!

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  21. Looking forward to making these this weekend. Do you recall what size can of stout you used for the glaze?

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