These St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes Are Made With Beer

By Nicole Weston

You may not bake with beer often, but when it's St. Patrick's Day there's no better time to try! The rich taste of Guinness pairs super well with chocolate, and you can finish these cupcakes with a swirl of icing and festive decorations to truly make it your lucky day.

Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes

Time: 1 hour Yield: 1 dozen cupcakes

What You Need

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup butter, room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • ½ cup Guinness (or other stout beer)
  • 1⁄3 cup buttermilk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • Swiss meringue buttercream
  • Green gel food coloring
  • Green fondant
  • Gold luster dust
  • Gold pearlized sugar sprinkles

Tools

  • Large open-star piping tip (we used Wilton No. 4B)
  • Disposable piping bags
  • Long wooden skewer
  • Food-safe paint brush
  • Small heart fondant cutter

Instructions

1. Prep

Preheat the oven to 350º F. Line a 12-cup baking tin with paper liners.

2. Combine Dry Ingredients

Sift together all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

3. Make the Batter

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in egg. Stir in half of the flour mixture, followed by the Guinness, buttermilk and vanilla extract. Stir in the remaining flour mixture, mixing until no streaks of dry ingredients remain.

4. Bake and Cool

Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups. Bake for 15–18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes in the pan for 2–3 minutes, then remove and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

5. Color the Piping Bag

To make the cool stripe of green in the icing, we used what's called the painted bag method. Using tape, attach a food-safe paint brush to a wooden skewer, making a very long paint brush handle. Squirt some green gel food coloring onto the inside top of your piping bag (it should already be fitted with your large, open-star tip), then use the paint brush to drag the gel down toward your tip so there's a stripe of green down one side. Then, carefully fill the bag with Swiss meringue buttercream.

6. Pipe the Swirls

Practicing on parchment paper first — sometimes it takes a few tries before your green stripe shows up — frost each of your cupcakes with a high swirl of icing.

7. Get a Little Lucky

To add some extra St. Patrick's Day fun, roll out green fondant and cut four small heart shapes for each cupcake. Dust each cupcake with gold luster, then arrange the hearts in the shape of a four-leaf clover on top of each treat. Finish with an extra sprinkle of gold pearlized sugar for good measure! Pro Tip: These cupcakes are very moist and will keep well for several days after baking when stored in an airtight container.

Share tips, start a discussion or ask other students a question. If you have a question for an expert, please click here.

Make a comment:
characters remaining

7 Responses to “These St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes Are Made With Beer”

  1. Elaine M Smith

    Nice

  2. EIaine M Smith

    Nice!!

  3. Adi Litiana Baleimokani

    I love these cupcakes recipe I'll try 1day❤️

  4. Sue

    Looking forward to making. Thanks

  5. Nancy

    where do I find a recipe for the Swiss Meringue Buttercream?

  6. safewickf16389221

    These sound delicious!

  7. Adriana h Delossantos

    I lke the cupcakes to mak for work ,It looks good and I will try it next year,