Guiness Pint-cake with Irish Whipped Cream

Top of the Morning to you! I hope you had a nice St. Patrick's Day. To celebrate my friends and I had a wonderful Irish meal with some great Irish Cheddars, Soda Bread, Corned Beef and Cabbage and to top it all off... a Guinness Cupcake with Irish Whipped Cream. This was an awesome cake definitely the hit of the party.

For the cupcakes you need to set out:
1 pint (2 cups) of stout (such as Guinness or an Oatmeal Stout)
2 cups (4 sticks) best quality butter
4 cups sugar-bowl sugar1
1/2 cups cocoa powder (Valhrona is the best)
4 large eggs
4 cups all purpose flour (sifted)
1 Tablespoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/3 cups sour cream

To make the icing you need
1 cups whipping cream
1 shot (1 ounce) of Irish cream liquor
2 Tablespoons of powdered sugar (XXX sugar)

Crank up old Bessy (my oven) up to 350 degrees F.

So I think the key to good cakes, is to keep your butter and eggs at room temperature, keep your cream cold, cream your sugar and butter first, and always sift your dry ingredients.

So here we go. In my love (my Kitchenade free standing mixer) I creamed the sugar and the butter. I added the cocoa and the eggs until the consistency was creamy. Sift all the dry ingredients together. Add the dry ingredients and then finally add the sour cream and the stout. Be careful that the stout doesn't bubble up over. Mix until well combined... go ahead you can taste it as long as you are using fresh eggs. :) I won't tell.

This made 24 cupcakes, baked in a lined muffin tin for 22 minutes. Every oven is different so wait until a toothpick came out clean.

But, while you are waiting: stash the cream in the deep freeze for a few minutes. Whip it up to soft peaks and fold in the Irish cream and sugar. I highly reccomend singing the Devo Whip It Song. It helps.

When they were completely cooled. I iced with the cream. You definetly want to wait until its cold otherwise your beautiful whipped cream will become a delicious puddle.

Please enjoy these cakes, I know we did.

Much love and happy baking.