Guinness Draught Chocolate Cupcakes / Cake

This recipe is a very easy to make and tastes great!

It is based upon the Dave Lieberman recipe on www.foodnetwork.com.

The major differences are: I use Guinness Draught and he uses Guinness Stout. His recipe is for cupcakes only. Judy and I changed the recipe for a cake and loved it. Just so you know ahead of time – the batter is very runny.

Ingredients

Cupcakes / Cake

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa, plus more for dusting pan and finished cupcakes / cake
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch salt
12 ounces Guinness Draught, room temperature (Bottle - 12 ounces, Can – 14.9 ounces)
1 stick butter, melted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sour cream

Icing

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened at room temperature
3/4 cup heavy cream (less if you want thicker icing - I highly recommend less)
1 (1 pound) box powdered sugar

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, sugar, flour, baking soda, and salt.
In another medium mixing bowl, combine the stout, melted butter, and vanilla. Beat in eggs, 1 at time. Mix in sour cream until thoroughly combined and smooth. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet mixture.

For Cupcakes
Lightly grease 24 muffin tins. Divide the batter equally between muffin tins, filling each 3/4 full. Bake for about 12 minutes and then rotate the pans. Bake another 5 minutes until risen, nicely domed, and set in the middle but still soft and tender. Cool before turning out. - Donot over cook!

For Cake
Lightly grease cake pan and dust with unsweetened cocoa. We used a 9 in. springform pan and lined the bottom with wax paper and greased and dusted it. Check to see if your springform is tight as the batter is very runny and may leak if it is not. To be safe – we put a sheet of tin foil on the bottom of the oven. I do think that you can use any cake pan for this recipe – you just need to adjust the baking time. Bake for about 20 minutes and then check every 5 minutes and take out of the oven when the cake is set but still soft in the center. The total time will depend on your oven and size of pan. It will continue to bake after it is out of the oven – so do not over bake. Cool before taking out of springform pan.

To make the icing:
In a medium bowl with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese on medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the heavy cream. On low speed, slowly mix in the confectioners' sugar until incorporated and smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use. Icing can be made several hours ahead and kept covered and chilled.
Top cupcake / cake with a heap of frosting and dust with cocoa.