Bottoms Up

Wow, it's been forever since I posted. I feel so guilty for not attending to my blog. But I had absolutely no idea how consuming having a baby would be. I found myself chin deep in poopy diapers, washing onesies everyday and spending a ton of time trying to get burps out. But finally last week I made my first batch of cupcakes after giving birth. I made them for my pediatrician's office as they have been so wonderful (I call them a lot). It was a great way to warm up my skills in the kitchen. This week I decided to try to make a cupcake for my brother. He has just been promoted at work and he is a huge fan of my cupcakes. He also loves and I mean loves beer. I had heard of buttercream infused with beer but cake too? I didn't want to make a chocolate beer cake as that is fairly common, so I went the other route. The only thing was I had to make a lowfat cupcake. I hate to use the word lowfat and cupcake in the same sentence, it's just wrong. But this was a requirement for my brother's beer cupcake as he has been really watching his weight. So, below is the recipe I tried. It came out better than I thought. The cake was nice and light. The two tablespoons of butter was just enough to make it moist. I usually use a ton of butter so 2 tablespoons was as lowfat as I was going to get. I wasn't about to make cupcakes that tasted lowfat! The buttercream could of used more beer. I used Guiness as it is dark and rich. But any beer would do (except Coors Light or Bud Light...choose a real beer!).

Ingredients:

1 cups all-purpose flour, sifted

1 teaspoons baking powder

pinch teaspoon salt

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 Tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup Guiness Dark Ale Beer

Buttercream:

2 eggs

2 sticks of unsalted butter at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup Guiness Dark Ale Beer

Turn on the oven to 375 degrees if using a regular oven, 350 degrees if you are using a convection oven

Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl

In a medium to large bowl whip eggs until light in color (using a handheld mixer). Add sugar 1/4 of a cup at a time to eggs and keep on whipping at high speed. Fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture.

In a small sauce pan combine beer with butter, warm the combo up until bubbles form on the outer rim. Pour beer mix into batter and combine.

Pour batter into cupcake baking cups and into the oven they go for about 15+ minutes. Check the cupcakes with a toothpick and when the toothpick comes out clean, they are ready! Let them cool completely. But eat one cause there is nothing more divine than a warm cupcake...even without buttercream

Buttercream:

In a Bain Marie (double boiler), stir eggs and sugar until the mixture reaches 160 degrees. Pour mixture into a mixer fitted with the whipping piece (not the paddle). Whip until cool, add butter bit by bit until you get a fabulous looking buttercream. If you make this recipe in temperature warmer than 68 degrees, it may take a while to get a smooth buttercream. Email me if this becomes a problem, I have tricks to make the buttercream come together faster.

Add beer and whip for about 2 minutes or until the beer has been completely incorporated.

Frost the cupcakes and voila!

To store cupcakes, you can freeze them in an airtight container. You can also refrigerate them in an airtight container. NEVER refrigerate cupcakes uncovered. They will dry out and taste horrible.