If Guinness Cupcakes Could Talk...

I think they’d partake in a little bit of self-promotion, don’t you? These cupcakes are delicious, and they know it! It wasn’t much of a challenge to figure out what they were saying to me. Rich chocolate and dark brown sugar offset the flavors of Guinness perfectly. Topped with Bailey’s Irish Cream frosting, these cupcakes definitely make a statement!

Normally, I don’t publicize statements from my food. All the commentary is mine, and I just let the food look pretty in a few photos here and there. However, these cupcakes are so full of themselves that they wouldn’t settle for anything less than full-blown advertising!

And this time, I’ve let them have their say. Why? Because it’s time for the 2010 “Eating Your Words” challenge! The challenge is hosted by Tangled Noodle and Savor the Thyme.

So what makes these cupcakes so special? Start with a combination of Guinness, chocolate, brown sugar, and butter. Swirl in some sour cream along with the rest of the liquid ingredients. Fold in the flour, and you’ve got a darn good cupcake batter! I can definitely attest to the fact that this batter is much tastier than your average chocolate cupcake batter.

These cupcakes just wouldn’t stop talking! They know how much I like math, so they told me that Guinness has a connection to the mathematical field of statistics. In the early 1900′s, Guinness employed a statistician by the name of William Sealy Gossett. Gossett studied barley cultivation, researching ways to improve yield and select for favorable varieties for brewing Guinness. He derived Student’s t-distribution, a probability distribution used when sample sizes are small.

I’m not really sure what that means, so the cupcakes spelled it out for me.

I’m still not really sure what it means. Don’t worry, this equation is not part of the recipe. You’ll just need a basic understanding of fractions and a love for chocolate and beer.

Guinness Cupcakes
Adapted from Big City, Little Kitchen
Yield: 24 cupcakes

1 cup Guinness
9 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon)
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a cupcake pan with paper liners, or grease the pan.

In a large saucepan, heat the Guinness and butter over medium-low heat until the butter melts. Remove the pan from the heat and add the cocoa powder and sugar, whisking to combine.

In a small bowl, combine the sour cream, eggs, and vanilla. Stir the sour cream mixture into the Guinness mixture. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and baking soda, then fold it into the batter. Fill cupcake cups 2/3 full of batter.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes in the pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then remove cupcakes from the pan and cool directly on the cooling rack.

When completely cooled, frost with Bailey’s Irish Cream frosting, or your favorite frosting.

Bailey’s Irish Cream Frosting
Created by Simple Math Bakery
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons Bailey’s
1 tablespoon milk
4 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted

With an electric mixer, combine the butter, Bailey’s, and milk on low speed. Slowly add confectioner’s sugar until desired frosting consistency is reached. Beat until smooth, about 3 minutes.

The liquor gives this frosting a slightly different consistency, making it a bit more difficult to spread. You may want to add some extra liquid, one tablespoon at a time.

The cupcakes have rearranged themselves once again. I’ll let them have the final word.