Guinness Cupcakes

Superbowl Sunday is a day for beer and food. So I put the two together to make a delicious treat called Beer Cupcakes (to be more specific, Guinness Cupcakes).

I took a batch over to a friend's house to share with everyone. There's always so much food at John & E's so I figured we'd have some left over. So I have a few to take to my new co-workers tomorrow. I'll just put them in the kitchen and let them devour on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Cake:
1 1/2 cups Guinness
1 stick, plus 2 tbsp unsalted butter (chopped into chunks)
3/4 cup unsweetened special dark cocoa powder
2 cups dark brown sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking soda

Glaze:
8 oz cream cheese (at room temperature)
1 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar
1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put paper liners in 2 muffin tins or great them up if you don't want to use liners.

Combine the Guinness and butter in a small saucepan, and heat to melt the butter. Remove from heat and whisk in the cocoa and brown sugar. In a large bowl, mix the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla. Then add the beer mixture and mix. Sift together the flour and baking soda and fold into the batter. Fill muffin molds 3/4 full (about 3 cookie scoops full). Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centers come out clean. Check it at 20 minutes to make sure you don't overbake. Let cool in tins for about 5-10 minutes then remove to wire rack to cool completely while you mix ingredients for glaze.

Using a mixer, whip cream cheese until smooth. Sift in sugar and beat. Add milk and beat until smooth. Spread over cooled cupcakes.

*To create a thinner glaze, use more milk. To make thicker, use more powdered sugar. Either way, add a little sugar or milk at a time and mix to desired consistency.

Batter makes 24 cupcakes.