Beer Cakes and Nitch

Great maker of alcoholic cupcakes and a hot pants wearing, kitten of my heart Ms. Bess from Denver Off the Wagon Blog inspired me today. I have no regret in saying that I feel compelled to stalk ladies like this, but if I lived with a chickie who made cupcakes at 1am infused with chai stouts, I'd basically be heaven. 

In honor of the woman Nitch wants to tempt, let's give the bee some honey and cook up some cups of beer cake!

Taking notes from Bess's Cherry Limeade Cupcakes and Mr. Chow's Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes I created Choco Cherry Lambic Cakes!

For the cupcakes:

• Unsalted butter, melted, for coating the muffin pans (not optional)
• 1/2 bottle Kriek Foundroyante
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup yogurt
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt

For the frosting:

• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
• Pinch fine salt
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 pound powdered sugar
• Natural unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting

"As always" Bess says, "begin by measuring out the beer for the recipe and set aside.  Pour the remaining beer into proper glassware and enjoy"

Once that note was executed to correctly I processed to muddle up the cooking as best as I could. 

1. Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Place cupcake liners in two (12-well) muffin pans; alternatively, coat the wells with melted butter. Set the pans aside. (This note does not apply to me as I have an oven that only turns on, heats up excessively and then needs to be shut off.)

2. Whisk together the Kriek, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla in a large bowl until combined. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, until completely incorporated. Whisk in the yogurt.

3. Whisk the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a second large bowl to aerate and combine. Gradually fold this mixture into the wet Guinness mixture. Divide the batter among the muffin wells.

4. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes. Set the pans on a wire rack and let the cupcakes cool completely before removing from the pans.

For the frosting:

1. Place the cream cheese and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. With the mixer on medium speed, gradually beat in the heavy cream until smooth, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. With the mixer on medium speed, gradually mix in the powdered sugar until completely incorporated and smooth, about 3 minutes.

2. Top each cupcake with a heap of frosting and dust with cocoa powder.

There was no frosting for my beer cakes, as my adventure to the shop resulted in failure of a chemical kind, the icing sugar I purchased was pure aspartame. Ew.

In the end, my cherry beer cakes look much better then they taste. Perhaps I should have done more folding like Mr.Chow recommended. If you have better luck with the recipe or have any alterations, I'd love to hear from you!

Looking forward to getting some real live cooking lessons from a local Chef on how to incorporate beer into my cooking. Coming next week!