You want a cupcake? I'm gonna need to see some ID

Hey there cupcake...You come here often? (That Guinness is a smooth talker.)

So, a cupcake walks into a bar, the bartender says "sorry we don't serve food here".

OK, I'm done. Really.

This weekend I wanted to bake something different. Not new necessarily, because I experiment a lot with baking, just different.

My biggest issue with baking is coming up with my own, original recipes (although, the malted cookies turned out pretty well). I nearly entered a large scale cooking contest until I read that a requirement was submitting 50 original recipes. I stopped right in my tracks and declined to enter.

I bake because of the science of it, and because there are "rules". In general, you have to follow the "rules" or recipe when you bake, otherwise, you end up with bread that doesn't rise or cakes that fall apart. I enjoy recipes, because I am a rule follower, always, and not just in baking. If the sign says don't walk - I don't walk. The speed limit is not a friendly guide, its the limit, and I count every item in my basket before entering the express 10 items or less lane. You get the point. Those of you that know me, could probably agree that given certain "things" that have happened in my life, perhaps the baking thing is for the control aspect. I don't know, and now I am really getting off track.

What I am trying to get to is that even though I like to try new things, I have yet to allow myself to really experiment, and for now use recipes from blogs, cookbooks and websites for my inspiration. And after searching and searching on Saturday, I found this weekends creation. Let me tell you people.....Wowsers!

I found my inspiration from Anna at Cookie Madness (see link to her site on sidebar). She made a Chocolate Stout Cake with Malted Chocolate Frosting, which I made into cupcakes rather than a whole cake. You can adapt a cake recipe to cupcakes by simply forgoing the bake time called for in the cake recipe and baking your cupcakes for 17-20 minutes.

This tasted great and worked well because I got to use some of my malted milk powder that I bought on a whim and Jim ended up with the 5 leftover bottles of Guinness since the recipe only requires a cup of stout. Win-Win!

Follow the link if you want to try it.

I posted a picture for this part of the frosting recipe:
Melt chocolate and half of the brown sugar together in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water or in top of a double boiler. Let cool slightly.

If you don't have a double boiler (I don't), just use a bowl that sets in the pot and allows room below for the simmering water and allow the sugar and chocolate to slowly melt. If you don't follow this or the double boiler method, you will scorch the chocolate.



Here they are. Guinness and Cake..4-ever