I’ve got to be honest: I’m not that much of a sweettooth. Never have been, as a kid I didn’t really care for candy that much. Nevertheless, I do love baking. Every now and then I get an urge to bake pies, cakes or cookies, and next thing you know, the bf is having whatever product came out f my baking urge for lunch for the next few days, as you don’t easily finish a pie with just two people. Cupcakes, however, are something else. They are like personal-sized cakes, but somehow better, just because they are cupcakes. Plus, you can store them in your freezer! Until a year ago, I had never baked one. I somehow assumed it was a lot of work to make them, what with the frosting and all.

This non-cupcake streak ended when I found a recipe for Guinness cupcakes (on a wonderful website by the way, go check out mybakingaddiction.com). They sounded so appealing, I simply had to make them.
And how glorious they were, not at all as time-consuming as I thought. The cacao combined with the burnt barley flavour of the Guinness, and topped of with a salty, yet sweet vanilla frosting.. simply divine. I added some 80% cacao ‘hagelslag’ (chocolate sprinkles. Or chocolate jimmies?) on top of the frosting, but next time I’m making them, I want to try sprinkling it with maple-candied bacon bits. I think that could make it even more delicious!

Anyway, besides the fact that cupcakes in general are delicious, they look very festive as well. So, when I was planning my birthday, I knew that cupcakes had to be a part of the food choices. And because they can be quite filling, I decided to go with mini-cupcakes (they look really cute, too).

It really perks up the table!

This recipe makes approximately 24 normal sized cupcakes, and about 60- 80 mini-cupcakes, depending on how miniature you make them.

Guinness Cupcakes

For the Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C (350°F).
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the Guinness, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Mix in the sour cream.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, sugar, flour, and baking soda. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet Guinness mixture.
4. Butter 24 muffin tins, or 60 mini-cupcake liners, and divide the batter among the muffin tins. I discovered that the best way to do this with the mini-cupcake liners, is to pour the batter (since it is quite fluid) into a a plastic freezer bag (or a ziplock bag, whatever you have laying around), cut off one of the corner tips and slowly pour the batter (about 2/3 of the cup).
5. Bake 25 minutes for the normal sized cupcakes, and 15 minutes for the miniature ones,  until risen and set in the middle but still soft and tender. Cool before turning out of the tins.

For the Vanilla Bean Buttercream

110 gram (1 stick) salted butter – room temperature
110 gram (1 stick) unsalted butter – room temperature

1 tablespoon Clear Vanilla extract

220 gram (1 1/2 pounds) confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar, 10x)
4 tablespoons very cold milk

1. Cream the butter in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer.
2. Add the clear vanilla extract and combine well. Begin adding in the sugar and mixing thoroughly after each addition.
3. After all of the sugar has been added and mixed thoroughly, begin adding the very cold milk one tablespoon at a time, combining very well after each addition (mixer on medium-high to high speed) until you reach the desired consistency.

Almost too cute to eat. Almost.. *munch*