I made Chocolate Guinness Stout cupcakes and they came out so perfect that I vowed I’d use beer to bake all my cucpakes! I had Blue Moon beer in the fridge and wondered what that would taste like because it’s complemented by orange. My husband liked these MORE than the Guinness and everyone else raves about them – saying they taste like a “dreamsicle”! I adapted a recipe found at Canela and Comino for the cake and used PastrySampler.com’s basic Italian Buttercream which they credit as adapted from “Wedding Cakes You Can Make: Designing, Baking, and Decorating the Perfect Wedding Cake” by Dede Wilson. Well worth the effort!!!!

  • Yields: 12-24
  • Total: 1-1/2 hours

Ingredients (17)

  • 1 box of Duncan Hines yellow cake mix
  • 1 bottle of Blue Moon beer
  • 1/2 cup of Canola oil
  • 4 eggs
  • 4 oz. Green & Black’s Organic White Chocolate, finely chopped
  • 2 T finely grated fresh orange peel
  • 1-1/2 t Orange Extract
  • FOR FROSTING: 1 1/4 c plus 1/3 c sugar
  • 1/2 c water
  • 8 large egg whites, at room temperature
  • 1 t cream of tartar
  • 1 1/2 lbs. (6 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pats
  • 1 T grated orange peel
  • ½ cup fresh orange juice, reduced to yield ¼ cup
  • 1-1/2 t Orange Extract
  • 1 T Watkins Vanilla Extract
  • Wilton Orange and Sky Blue food color, 1/16 t each

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
  2. Combine cake mix, beer, oil, and eggs in a stand mixer bowl. Mix on medium speed with paddle until combined. Add chopped chocolate and orange peel and gently stir in.
  3. Transfer batter to a gallon size Ziploc bag and seal, clip corner at an angle. Fill 24 paper lined cupcake tins by piping batter in a circular motion to 2/3-3/4 full.
  4. Bake at 325°F for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when stuck in the middle. Remove from oven and transfer immediately to a cooling rack. Once cooled, frost with Orange Italian Buttercream.
  1. ORANGE ITALIAN BUTTERCREAM: Place the 1 1/4 c sugar and the water in a saucepan. Stir to wet the sugar and bring to boil over medium heat and wash the sides of the pan, keep boiling the sugar syrup until the temperature reaches 248°F.
  2. Meanwhile, using a stand mixer, place the whites in a grease-free mixing bowl and whip on medium high until frothy. Add in the cream of tartar and continue to whip until soft peaks form. Add in the 1/3 c of the sugar. Continue whipping until stiff, glossy peaks form.
  3. When the syrup reaches 248°F, reduce mixing speed of the whites to medium and slowly pour in the hot syrup into the egg whites. Try not to get any of the syrup on the sides of the bowl or hard sugar balls may form in the meringue. Continue to whip until cooled, which may take up to 15 minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, place ½ cup of orange juice in a saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat, reducing by half. When egg white mixture is sufficiently cooled, add in pats of butter slowly and whip until combined, smooth and the butter is incorporated. Lower speed of mixer as needed when adding butter to avoid splattering. This will look watery at first, but will firm up as it continues to whip.
  5. When finished, reserve 2 cups of frosting, 1 cup each in 2 mixing bowls. Add 1/16 t Wilton Sky Blue food color to bowl #1, and 1/16 t Wilton Orange food color to bowl #2. To frosting remaining in stand mixer bowl, add orange juice reduction, orange peel, and orange extract.
  6. Transfer frostings to 3 separate pastry bags. Equip white frosting with Ateco #805 Large round frosting tip, orange with Wilton#1M Large tip and blue with Ateco #8 small tip. Pipe white frosting on each cupcake using a circular motion starting at outside and finishing inside. Pipe an orange frosting swirled star on top of cupcake, top with a small dot of blue on top to finish.