Strawberry Torta (Strawberry and Cream Cake)

Recently, my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. My mother is Swedish and my parents met in Sweden, so naturally she requested a Swedish dessert. There is nothing more Sweden-in-Summer to me than fresh jordgubbar (strawberries) and fresh whipped cream, lightly sweetened but still a touch of tang. Swedish cooking is about highlighting fresh ingredients while they are still in season, and this cake is really all about highlighting the natural goodness of the strawberries. The cream is just slightly sweetened so as not to overwhelm the berries. Strawberry and Cream torta (cake) is a cross-cultural favorite, and a great way to celebrate Summer, special occasions, or just because. While in traditional Swedish recipes a sponge cake is used, in this recipe a chiffon cake creates a more buttery flavor while keeping the light structure of a sponge cake.

The most intimidating thing about making this cake is torting the cake- or dividing the cake into three layers. Even though it is a tall cake that requires a 2" tall pan or a springform pan, that takes a little precision from an admittedly clumsy person. The first time I made it I went with only two layers, but added mashed strawberry to the top layer, to be topped again with whipped cream. That was pretty good, and certainly was easier to manage with a knife, but I felt the cake to cream ratio could be a little better and that I needed to get comfortable cutting a single cake into three layers. This is particularly true if I ever want to learn how to make princess torta, the royalty of Swedish cakes.

So I went out and got myself a cake leveler. I try not to overdo it on the niche purpose baking goods, I really do. But I will say that this was a wise $7 investment if you're in for the layer cake long-haul. It took all the intimidation away, created nice, flat, even layers with a simple sawing motion. And is thin enough to tuck away in the baking gadgets drawer. I included a video on using the cake leveler below. You want to start just a little below where the top starts to crown (at the lowest point of the cake) for your first layer. If you are using the leveler and are having trouble getting it started, use the knife to start and then start sawing back and forth and gently rotating the cake.

The original recipe for this is from Cook's Illustrated, but I found the way they organized ingredient measurements to be confusing so I adjusted it for a better mis en place. I also am the type of person that always feels very guilty taking up a bunch of pantry space with a bag of cake flour, so I rewrote the recipe for all-purpose flour. If you have cake flour on hand, use 1 1/4 cup cake flour instead of the all purpose flour and omit the cornstarch from the recipe (1 cup cake flour=7/8 cup all purpose flour + 2 tablespoons corn starch). If you want to plan ahead, you can make the cake portion, free it in plastic wrap (at least double wrapped), then thaw 2 hours before you want to make the cake. If you want to make it the night before, leave cutting the cake to right before you are ready to decorate, cover in plastic wrap, and put in fridge for night.

Lastly, this particular cake that got photographed I made when friends brought over raspberries from their garden. So obviously I put the raspberries on the cake. You don't mess around with that. There's also raspberry in the Frambois we used (Chambourd) in place of Kirsch, due to Frambois being a little easier to locate, so it all works out.

 

Ingredients

 

For the cake

1 cup and 1 1/2 tablespoons All Purpose flour (If using cake flour, use 1 1/4 cup cake flour and omit the cornstarch)
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
3 egg yolks, room temperature
3 egg whites, room temperature
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

plain bread crumbs (optional)

For the Strawberry Filling
2 pounds fresh strawberries (medium or large, about 2 quarts), washed, dried, and stemmed
5- 6 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons Kirsch or a Frambois like Chambourd
pinch table salt
 

For the Whipped Cream   

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature 

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

1/8 teaspoon table salt 

2 cups heavy cream (more local the better)

Instructions 

1. FOR THE CAKE: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and line with a very light dusting of bread crumbs, (or flour if you don't want to be as Swedish about it) round 9 by 2-inch straight sided cake pan or 9-inch springform pan and line with parchment paper. 
2. Set three tablespoons of the sugar aside for use later. 
3. In medium mixing bowl, whisk flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, and rest of the sugar in mixing bowl. 
4. Whisk in 2 whole eggs and 3 yolks, butter, water, and vanilla; whisk until smooth.
5. In clean bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat remaining 3 egg whites at medium-low speed until frothy, about 2 minutes. 
6. With machine running, gradually add the reserved 3 tablespoons sugar. 
7. Increase speed to medium-high, and beat until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes. 
8. With a rubber spatula, stir one-third of whites into yolk batter to lighten. 
9. Add remaining whites and gently fold into batter until no white streaks remain. 
10. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake until toothpick or wooden skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 30 to 40 minutes. 
11. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then invert cake onto greased wire rack; peel off and discard parchment. Invert cake again; cool completely, about 2 hours, during which you can complete the filling and the cream.
    
    
    
    
    
    
12. FOR THE STRAWBERRY FILLING: Halve 24 of best-looking berries and reserve. 
13. Quarter remaining berries; toss with 4 to 6 tablespoons sugar (depending on sweetness of berries) in medium bowl and let sit 1 hour, stirring occasionally. 
14. Strain juices from berries and reserve (you should have about 1/2 cup). 
15. In workbowl of food processor fitted with metal blade, give macerated berries five 1-second pulses (you should have about 1 1/2 cups). 
16. In small saucepan over medium-high heat, simmer reserved juices and Frambois until syrupy and reduced to about 3 tablespoons, 3 to 5 minutes. 
17. Pour reduced syrup over macerated berries, add pinch of salt, and toss to combine. Set aside until cake is cooled. If you want to wait to whip the cream and decorate right before serving, you can pause here.

1. FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM: When cake has cooled, place cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and salt in bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment. 
2. Whisk at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula as needed. Reduce speed to low and add heavy cream in slow, steady stream; when almost fully combined, increase speed to medium-high and beat until mixture holds stiff peaks, 2 to 3 1/2 minutes more, scraping bowl as needed (you should have about 4 1/2 cups).

1. TO ASSEMBLE THE CAKE: If using a large serrated knife, slice cake into three even layers. If only making a two layer cake, slice in half with knife. If using a leveler, set the leveler slightly below where the cake starts to crown at the lowest part of the cake if your oven is uneven to cut the first layer. Halve the remaining cake.
2. Place bottom layer on cardboard round or cake plate bottom side up and arrange ring of 20 strawberry halves, cut sides down and stem ends facing out, around perimeter of cake layer. 
3. Pour one half of pureed berry mixture (about 3/4 cup) in center, then spread to cover any exposed cake. 
4. Gently spread about one-third of whipped cream (about 1 1/2 cups) over berry layer, leaving 1/2-inch border from edge, reaching the tips of the strawberry ring. 
5. Place middle cake layer (or top layer if only doing two layers) on top and press down gently Whipped cream layer should become flush with cake edge. 
6. Repeat with 20 additional strawberry halves, remaining berry mixture, and half of remaining whipped cream.
7. Gently press last cake layer upside down on top. If doing only two layers, go to step 28.
8. Spread remaining whipped cream over top.
9. Decorate with remaining cut strawberries. 
10. Serve, or chill for up to 4 hours.

The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies with Toffee Chunks and Brown Butter

The chocolate chip cookie. The baseline from which all other cookies must be judged, and yet a category so generous that it includes several robust sub-categories: crispy thin chocolate chip cookies, oversize jumbo chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip cookies containing alternatives to chocolate chips, and classic Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies. This recipe is a combination of those last two categories, and is my spin on the Cook's Illustrated chocolate chip cookie recipe. These are the chocolate chip cookies I bring into work on Monday, and that I might perhaps bring to your 4th of July picnic.

The secret to the recipe is browning most of the butter to add to the toffee notes of this chewy centered/crispy edged cookie. I took it a step further with a healthy dose of toffee bars, because if there is one thing that is true, it is that the Swedish people are a toffee-loving people. I prefer using Skol bars (or Daim if they are around, which is rare), but most often due to super market availability I end up using Heath Bars. I tend to think that taking the time to cut the larger bars into chunks makes for a better cookie, just like chocolate chunks make a better cookie than chocolate chips, but you can also find Bits of Heath or mini-heath bars that can speed the process up a bit. The end result is still a pretty awesome cookie, larger than your average Tollhouse cookie because, let's face it, nobody is satisfied by a single average size Tollhouse cookie. I challenge you to find a person who sees a larger chocolate chip cookie, and doesn't consider that a positive development.

As far as browning butter is concerned, the ideal is to have a light colored metal pan, as opposed to a nonstick pan. The dark coloring of the nonstick pan can make it a little more difficult to see when your butter is starting to brown and doesn't retain heat quite as well. When the butter is browned to a dark golden brown, it will start to smell nutty, and yes even a bit toffee-like. Your hand should get tired, if not from browning the butter than by the amount of whisking in this recipe. That can't be helped. Delicious will do what it does, and it'll take as long as it takes. Here is a video on how to make brown butter. Remember that it can go from brown to burnt quite fast, so move it from the hot pan to the heat proof bowl fast once it hits peak nuttiness. Brown butter is also the type of thing that you can make in larger batches and save in ice cube trays in the freezer for other recipes (although also remember that you need this brown butter hot enough to melt the rest of the butter for the recipe). You can either discard the milk solids through a strainer or use them. I tend to use them, as I don't mind the little flecks in the cookies and think they have flavor.

Much like I prefer delicious impurity filled grade B maple syrup for its more intense flavors, I prefer dark brown sugar to light brown sugar, but both work well. I tend to think that the darker my mix of brown butter and sugar is, the more complex my flavors end up being. Fun fact- if you have no brown sugar, a quick fix substitution is adding a tablespoon of molasses to white sugar, then pulsing in a food processor to blend. One final note, this is the recipe where I learned how to correctly level flour in a measuring cup. Scoop down and grab a full/overflowing cup of flour. Do not press down. Take a knife, and in one brisk swish, swipe it across the measuring cup. More accurate than filling from the bag or with scoops.    

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Toffee Chunks

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (8 3/4 ounces, I prefer King Arthur)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 14 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks, 10 tablespoons for browning and 4 tablespoons reserved at room temperature)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
• 3/4 cups packed dark brown sugar (5 1/4 ounces)
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 2 teaspoons good vanilla extract
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 large egg yolk, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks (12 oz for chunks, I prefer Ghiradelli semisweet or bittersweet)
• 1 cup chopped heath bars (or other toffee bar such as Daim or Skol, etc.)

Instructions

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 large (18- by 12-inch) baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat. 
2. Whisk flour and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.
3. Heat 10 tablespoons of the butter in a light colored skillet over medium-high heat until melted. Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, about 3 minutes, depending on the heat of the pan. Remove skillet from heat quickly and, using heatproof spatula, transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. 
4. Stir in remaining 4 tablespoons butter into hot butter until completely melted. These extra tablespoon make up for the milk solids that were burned off during the browning process.
5. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until fully incorporated.
6.  Add egg and yolk and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds. Let mixture stand 3 minutes, then whisk for 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth, and shiny. Setting a timer can be helpful. The waiting process allows the sugar molecules to dissolve into the butter mixture better.
7. Using rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. 
8. Stir in chocolate chips and toffee chunks, giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.
9. Divide dough 3 tablespoon portions (we use our smaller sized ice cream scoop or a little over an 1/8 cup measure). Arrange 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets, 8 dough balls per sheet, staggered.
10. Bake cookies 1 tray at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10 to 14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking.  Remember for the second set of cookies to give your oven a minute to come to temperature again after removing the first sheet.
11. Let cool on rack for one minute, then transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely before serving. I know that part is hard. If you need to re-load the sheet, let the cookie sheet cool for five minutes before loading more cookies onto it.

Swedish Visiting Cake (Swedish Almond Cake)

Almost every Northern European culture features some version of a traditional almond cake. This cake is so good, simple, and elegant that it needs no frosting other than a light dusting of sugar, and when served fresh is one of the best things you've ever tasted. It goes with everything and is just the right balance between a light and heavy dessert. This version is Swedish, and I particularly like it because it doesn't require almond flour or almond paste, two ingredients that I love but that can get pricey and more difficult to find.  The story behind Swedish visiting cake is that it is supposed to be simple enough to be started when you see someone coming at the end of the lane and out of the oven and ready to be served by the time tea is ready. This is only slightly far from true. You might want to zest the lemon before you see your guest. But otherwise, yeah, you could do this from start to finish, including all prep, in forty five minutes with ingredients you most likely have on hand.

Now, it needs to be stated that my family is Swedish, and it would be very tempting to pass this off as a long running family recipe that my Swedish grandparents made. But actually, it is from Dorie Greenspan's Baking cookbook, with slight alterations. When I first made it for my Swedish mother, she said, "we never made cake when people visited for tea. You'd bake cookies, and then have cookies stored in the freezer to bring out at a moment's notice for guests." And sometimes you would bring those cookies when you went to visit others. Well, this cake is also brought around when you visit others (carries nicely in a cast iron skillet). It  stores well for up to a week, and is just as delicious two days later as it is served warm. Basically, I think my Mormor in particular was more into cookies than cake and that is that. But the idea is the same, as is the importance of constantly having little desserts available for guests who come for tea, a problem the Swedes have put a good deal of time into solving.

One cake is best cut into 8 slices. It serves well with tea (obviously), but also light ice creams like vanilla and with red berries such as strawberries or raspberries. 

Swedish Visiting Cake

Ingredients

1 cup sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
About 1/4 cup sliced almonds


Instructions

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.
2. Heavily butter a seasoned 9-inch cast-iron skillet or other heavy ovenproof skillet, a 9-inch cake pan or even a pie pan.
3. Pour the sugar into a medium bowl.  Add the lemon zest and blend and toss the zest and sugar together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and aromatic and lemony. Congrats, you've just made lemon sugar.
4. Whisk in the eggs one at a time until well blended.  This is your only levener for the cake, so don't rush it.
5. Whisk in the salt and the extracts.  
6. Switch to a rubber spatula and stir in the flour.  
7. Finally, fold in the melted butter. 
8. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula, evenly spreading the batter to the sides.  
9. Scatter the sliced almonds over the top and sprinkle with a little sugar (it should take between 2-3 small spoonfuls).  If you're using a cake or pie pan, place the pan on a baking sheet.
10. Bake the cake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until it is golden and the sugar crisps on the outside; the inside will remain moist, almost damp. If you are cooking multiple cakes, rotate once during baking, and remember to check both cakes for done-ness, as a cast iron skillet and a cake pan cook a little differently.  
11. Remove the pan from the oven and let the cake cool for 5 minutes, then run a thin knife around the sides of the cake to loosen it.  You can serve the cake warm or cooled, directly from the skillet or turned out onto a serving plate. 
    
    
    
    
    

The Perfectly Nutty Brigsten's Pecan Pie with Bourbon Whipped Cream

I am not a fan of Pecan Pie. I think it is too sweet, and weirdly also bitter. I'm also not a huge fan of the almost jell-o like consistency the filling can reach. It's just not my thing, and not my choice of holiday pies. Pumpkin pie really is the reigning monarch of Thanksgiving pies. So it's a little strange that one of the pies I make the most frequently and is most coveted by TK is my pecan pie. It's my exception pecan pie. I like to say I dislike all pecan pies, except for this one which is delicious and perfect in every way. It focuses on the delicious nutty flavor and nothing else. No mouthful of sweet. No orange. Just deep roasted nut flavor.

This recipe comes from my favorite restaurant in New Orleans, Brigsten's. Obviously. Where but New Orleans could convince me not only to re-examine the pecan pie, but to embrace it? And where else would finding out that a restaurant published a couple of recipes online cause me to get so excited I had to make them all immediately? Turns out, the first secret to a great pecan pie is the same one I have long applied to most of my pinenut recipes- always toast your nuts, and the deeper and darker you toast them, the richer and rounder your flavors. This recipe dark roasts its pecans, then grinds them up into a paste of roasted pecan that is added to the curd to soften the corn syrup, add texture, and generally take this pie to another level. The second secret is a flaky crust.

Pie crusts and I have a troubled history. How to make a good pie crust is so deceptively simple from the offset, but so fraught with danger and errors in the implementation. The trick to getting a crust nice and flaky is to only mix the dough enough that you can still see swirls and spots of raw butter. Those little butter spots will become little air pockets that flake out the crust and give it its rich buttery goodness. The trick is getting your dough to where it needs to be without having to overwork your dough and lose the flaky texture. And the way to make that happen is to keep everything as cold as possible throughout the pie making process. Anything I can do to keep my ingredients cold, I do without hesitation, including Brigsten's trick which is to freeze the butter, then grate the frozen stick through a box grater. I take it further and put the flour and butter mixture back in the freezer to refreeze prior to working together, but either way, the grating goes a long way towards minimizing the amount of time you need to handle the dough. Likewise, if at ANY point you feel like your dough is getting too warm, stop what you are doing, return the dough and/or tools to the freezer, give it a twenty minute rest, then come back to it.

I bought a pastry scraper for the sole purpose of assisting with the creation of pie crusts, but you don't need one, particularly if you are rolling out your dough between two sheets of parchment paper. If when you try and pull the flattened dough it starts to stick, return the parchment paper sandwiched dough to the fridge to chill for fifteen minutes, then try again. If using a pastry scraper, keep scraper in the freezer when not immediately using. Slide under the dough to cut it away, being very careful not to stretch the crust. Do not stretch the dough to fit the pan or as you are lifting the pan. Any stretching done to the dough will shrink back down as the pie bakes. You can use leftover dough to fill any cracks or holes in the crust, again being careful not to stretch out the dough.


Brigsten's Pecan Pie

For the dough:

1 cup all-purpose white flour
½ teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
 ¼ cup ice water

For the filling:

½ cup darkly roasted pecans, ground
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup dark corn syrup
2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
 1 cup medium pecan pieces
 
Bourbon Brown Sugar Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy cream 
1/2 cup sour cream 
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar 
1/8 teaspoon table salt 
2 teaspoons bourbon

 

Instructions

 

For the Dough-

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree.
2. Place butter, rolling pin, pastry scraper, pastry cutter (if using) in freezer until moments before you are ready to use.
3. Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl. 
4. Once butter is ice cold and hard but not quite frozen, use the large holes of a hand grater, grate the butter into the mixing bowl with the flour mixture. If your fingers warm the butter, place bowl in freezer for fifteen minutes before continuing.
5. Lightly blend the butter and flour mixture with your fingertips until the texture is like coarse cornmeal. Be careful not to overwork the dough.
6. Add the ice water and blend until incorporated, moving as fast as possible. Swirls or spots of butter are not a problem and will resolve themselves during cooking and will result in a flaky crust.
7. Form the dough into a ball and blend until thoroughly incorporated. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for forty five minutes.
8. Place dough between two sheets of parchment paper or on a well floured countertop. Roll out the dough, adding flour as necessary and working as quickly as possible, to 1/8-inch thick. If dough starts to get too warm, stop, move disc of dough in parchment paper to fridge for fifteen minutes, then remove and continue rolling.
9. Remove top layer of parchment paper if using. Place an 8 ½ inch pie pan face down on the dough and cut the dough to fit the pan, leaving a border of about 1 1/2 inch.
10. Line the pan with the dough while removing second layer of parchment paper with a pastry scraper if necessary, being sure not to stretch the dough. trim the edges, and fill in any gaps with leftover dough and refrigerate or freeze until ready to use (at least one hour).

For the Filling-

1.  Toast pecans in dry skillet or roast on baking sheet until darkly colored and fragrant.
2. Grind pecans using either a morter and pestle, a coffee grinder, or a small food processor.
3. In an electric mixer with the wire whisk attachment, add the eggs and beat on high speed until frothy, about 1 minute. 
4. Add the sugar, corn syrup, butter, vanilla, salt, and ground roasted pecans.
5.  Beat on medium speed until well blended. 
6. Stir in the pecan pieces with a rubber spatula.
7. Pour the filling into the pie shell. 
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. 
9. Reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake until the filling is browned on top and the crust is light golden brown.  20 - 30 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and cool at room temperature for 1 hour before serving. Serves 6-8.

 

For the Whipped Cream-

1. In bowl of standing mixer or with hand mixer, whisk heavy cream, sour cream, brown sugar, and salt until combined. 
2. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve, at least 4 hours or up to 24, stirring once or twice during chilling to ensure that sugar dissolves.
3. When ready to serve, add bourbon and beat mixture with whisk attachment at medium speed until small bubbles form around edges, about 40 seconds. 
4. Increase speed to high and continue to beat until fluffy or starts to form soft peaks and doubled in volume, about 1 minute longer. 
5. Serve.

Guiness Cupcakes with Bailey's Frosting (Car Bomb Cupcakes)

UPDATE- So I updated this recipe a bit when I made a Guiness Cake this year for St. Patrick's Day. The cake recipe is a bit denser than this recipe, relying on baking powder more than baking soda to rise and with a little more chocolate. I also made the chocolate whiskey frosting.

Guiness cake is delicious. It can be made with any chocolate or dark stout beer, such as Duck Rabbit Milk Stout. There seem to be two main recipes for it online, Nigella Lawson's and the Great Barrington Brewery recipe. I have made both. These cupcakes I choose Nigella Lawson's, adapted it for cupcakes, and increased the darkness to it by adding a 1/4 cup of coffee in addition to the Guiness. However, while the recipe calls for a cream cheese frosting, I used the Bailey's Irish Cream Butter Cream recipe found on Smitten Kitchen. If you are asking, why did you not ALSO do the Chocolate Whiskey Ganache on Smitten Kitchen to truly make it a car bomb cupcake? The answer is two-fold. First, I didn't have a tiny baking round at my disposal, as this was made at my sister's house for my brother-in-law's birthday. Secondly, this cake is very rich and the Bailey's frosting is over the top and alcoholic as is. Last time I made the full-sized cake (using the Great Barrington recipe plus a little extra chocolate), I accused it (the cake) of getting me drunk. That might have been an unfair accusation given the wine consumed at that dinner party prior to the cake's arrival on the scene, but the point is the same. There's alcohol in the Bailey's and I think that's enough and that the whiskey ganache is unnecessary.

Unlike the Irish Cream, the Guiness alcohol does cook fully off, so if you want to serve this to kids, just do a basic cream cheese frosting instead. When I make this for St. Patrick's Day, I only top the top of the cake, making it look like a glass of Guiness with the foam on top. 

The superfine sugar is always nice to use in baking. If you don't have it, you can just use regular sugar, or if you are feeling fancy, run 2 cups of regular sugar through a food processor for a minute, creating a finer sugar. Remember that making frosting is not an exact science (unlike most else things in baking, so enjoy it). It will look wrong, then right, then wrong again. The trick is to add the powdered sugar in batches at a time to the creamed butter. This not only prevents a mess of powdered sugar everywhere, but also tends to require less sugar to hit your desired fluffy and delicious consistency.

Guiness Cupcakes with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting (Car Bomb Cupcakes)

Guiness Cake:

Paper or Aluminum  muffin or cupcake wrappers
1 cup Guinness stout + 2 tablespoons
10 tablespoons (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter
3/8 cup unsweetened dutch processed cocoa powder

1/4 cup cold coffee and/or 1 tsp espresso powder (both optional)
2 cups superfine sugar (I have used regular granulated sugar with no ill effects)
3/8 cup sour cream
2 extra-large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Bailey's Frosting:

3 to 4 cups confections sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperatue
3 to 4 tablespoons Baileys - 1 airplane bottle's worth

Additional milk or cream for blending if necessary

Instructions

For the Cupcakes

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Line muffin tins with foil or paper liners
3. In a large saucepan, combine Guinness and butter. Place over medium-low heat until butter JUST melts, then remove from heat into medium sized bowl. 
4. Add cocoa and superfine sugar, and whisk to blend.
5. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine sour cream, eggs and vanilla; mix well. 
6. Add sour cream and egg mixture to Guinness mixture.
7. Add coffee and espresso powder if using.
8. Add flour and baking soda, and whisk again until smooth. 
9. Pour into muffin tins, filling about 3/4 of the way, and bake until risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes, rotating once for even baking. This may slightly deflate the cupcakes, so it might be good to have an official "tester" cupcake.
10. Leave in muffin tins for five minutes then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling. Do not frost until completely cool.

For the Frosting

1. Whip the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, for several minutes. You want to get it very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time.
2. When the frosting looks thick enough to spread or thicker, drizzle in the Baileys (or milk if you are doing the non-alcoholic option) and whip it until combined and frosting is correct texture. 
3. If this has made the frosting too thin (it shouldn’t, but just in case) beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.
4. Frost the top of the cupcakes and serve. Store in a covered container in the fridge. They should keep for at least a day before starting to go stale.