Guinness Chocolate and Brooklyn's Birthday

My lovely niece Brooklyn celebrated her birthday back in May but waited until June to have her party in Omaha at Fun-Plex. I was asked by my sister to make her a 'Mo-Mo cake'. Her favorite color is sky blue so I layered 4 9 inch cakes on top of one another alternating between blue cake and chocolate cake. I had a really busy week last week so I only had an hour here and an hour there to put the cake together. I didn't get to spend as much time on the decorating stage as I usually do but it turned out well considering my time constraints.

The colors unfortunately did not turn up very bright on my camera. Bad lighting...sorry!

It's very colorful 

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa, plus more for dusting finished cupcakes
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups all-purposeflour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch fine salt
• 1 bottle stout beer (recommended: Guinness)
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup sour cream 

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.

Gotta love the yummy appearance of Guinness and dairy products 

Divide the batter equally between cupcake tins, filling each 3/4 full. Bake for about 12 minutes and then rotate the pans. Bake another 12 to 13 minutes until risen, nicely domed, and set in the middle but still soft and tender. Cool before turning out.

I topped the cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting and lightly dusted them with more cocoa powder. They are a nice balance of Guinness and chocolate flavors. I hope they go over well!