Sasha's Kitchen: Miniature Starry Night Chocolate Stout Cupcakes

My latest recipe for cupcakes should provide some good reading for a snow day.  The snow this morning caught me totally off guard.  I didn't listen to the updated weather forecast and after a entire day of slushy snow that didn't stick well at all, I was surprised at the foot and a half or so of fresh snow on the ground this morning.  Being a Rochester native, who is accustomed to snow, I thought the snow hurricane was just some NYC tough talk when I went to bed last night.  But here I am, home writing about cupcakes on a snow day.

To prepare these cupcakes (which I actually made Tuesday evening), I followed my recipe for chocolate stout cupcakes, both for the frosting and the icing.  I have repeated my recipe below.  If you are making full size cupcakes, follow the recipe exactly.  However, I made two trays of mini-cupcakes using my two new Wilton silicon cupcake trays, another gift from my mom.  Therefore, I cut the recipe in half so I wouldn't have a lot of extra batter.  If you are doing the same, I advise you to also halve the recipe.  The full recipe makes two dozen full size cupcakes.

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes (Makes 24 large cupcakes or 48 small cupcakees - so cut in half)
3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa (use Droste Dutch chocolate, which is the best on the market)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 bottle or can of chocolate stout or regular stout (I used Guinness in tonight's batch)
1 stick butter (melted)
3 large eggs
3/4 cup non-fat sour cream (because we want to keep our cupcakes healthy. . . yeah right)
1 T vanilla extract


Half Recipe for Sasha's Frosting
2 cups confectioner's sugar
4 oz (half package) cream cheese
2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 T honey
1/2 stick of unsalted butter
Add a drop of high-grade professional quality orange food coloring


To prepare the cupcakes, follow my instructions in my post for chocolate stout cupcakes.  In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients (the cocoa, flour, baking soda and salt). Then in a separate bowl, I combined the beer with the stick of butter that I had melted first in the microwave. After you do this, the mixture will look absolutely disgusting and may even curdle (mine did). Persevere and don't worry about this, as it will turn out all right in the end. Then add the vanilla and the three eggs, one at a time. Next mix in the sour cream until fully combined. Next, slowly add the dry ingredients and mix well.


Fill two mini cupcake trays with the batter.  Bake in an oven preheated to 350 F for about 25 minutes until done (test with a toothpick).  Allow the cupcakes to cool before frosting them, or they will melt.  I made the frosting by beating the ingredients in a stand mixer following my instructions in my previous chocolate stout cupcake post.


To decorate the cupcakes, use a spatula or a frosting bag (I used a spatula) to top each cupcake with the frosting.  I used colored fondant that I bought at New York Cake along with star shaped fondant cookie cutters to make purple and orange stars out of fondant to decorate the mini cupcakes.  This was pretty easy - I plan on doing more high-skill, complicated cupcake designs in the weeks ahead, so stay tuned.