Cocktail Cupcakes Part 2 - Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Icing

As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently made a number of booze themed cupcakes for a friend's birthday. Most of them were in traditional cocktail flavors, (mojito, amaretto sour, Irish Cream), but my favorite were the chocolate cinnamon stout cupcakes made with Guinness and topped with salted caramel icing. Stout cakes don't really taste like stout; something about the stout creates a rich, dense, moist chocolate cake. I wanted to put a unique twist on the traditional stout cake, so I added some cinnamon and topped it with salted caramel icing. The pairing of chocolate and cinnamon is one of my favorites; it started with my big-pink-puffy-heart love of truffles made with chocolate, cinnamon and chili; and has led to chocolate cake spiced with cinnamon rapidly climbing my list of favorite things. I really like it in the stout cake, as the cinnamon adds a layer of flavor to what can otherwise be a very dense, almost too rich, type of cake. All the alcohol in these cupcakes is in the batter, so it bakes off, making these family friendly treats.


(For a printable version of this recipe, click here)
Chocolate Cinnamon Stout Cupcakes (Yield - 2 1/2 dozen standard cupcakes)
Adapted from the recipe by King Arthur Flour.

2 cups stout or dark beer, such as Guinness
2 cups unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups cocoa
1 tablespoon cinnamon
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 large eggs
3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt (or sour cream)


Icing:
1 cup butter
1/2 cup caramel (either caramel topping or camel candies that have been melted and cooled)
6 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons milk

Step #1 - Preheat oven to 350* F.

Step #2 - In a saucepan, heat the butter and the stout over medium heat until the butter melts. The stout will appear foamy while this happens.

Step #3 - Remove pan from heat and add cocoa and cinnamon; whisk until smooth. Set pan aside to cool.

Step #4 - In a large bowl, mix the four, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Step #5- In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs and yogurt.

Step #6 - Add the stout-cocoa mixture to the egg/yogurt mixture and meat until smooth and glossy.

Step #7 - Add the flour mixture and mix at slow speed. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix again until smooth. This is a thin batter, it will be a little soupy.

Step #8 - Spoon into cupcake pans lined with cupcake papers. Fill cups 3/4 of the way full. The soupy texture of this batter makes filling the mini-cupcake pans a challenge. Be sure to wipe up and batter that drips onto the top of the pan before baking.

Step #9 - Bake at 350* F. For minis- bake 7-10 minutes. For standard sized cupcakes- bake 17-20 minutes. Remove them from the baking pan as soon as they are cool enough to handle. Finish cooling on a wire rack. I recommend covering them with wax paper and/or a tea towel while they cool. This helps prevent them from drying out.

For the Icing:
Mix all ingredients with a mixer until well combined.

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