Chocolate Season is Officially OPEN

Here, let me tell you about the cupcakes I made.

Tomorrow is Saint Aardvark’s birthday, you see, and then it is mine the next day. Understandably we have great need for cupcakes. I was planning to make our usual fabulous white cake with butter cream frosting and excess sprinkles but then I was looking for February’s shortbread recipe and at this site called Pinch My Salt, I found a recipe for Chocolate Stout* Cupcakes.

* That’s Stout as in beer, not as in “…short and…”

I like beer. I like chocolate. I like cupcakes. Away!

Instead of buying Guinness, a beer I am not overmuchly fond of, I chose a

– get ready for this –

Double Chocolate Stout.

And instead of cream cheese frosting like in the recipe I am just going with the same butter cream frosting from the back of the icing sugar bag but with food colouring to make things interesting for Trombone and with some kept aside and made into chocolate frosting because chocolate frosting is the best.

I can tell you that the cupcakes are delicious. I just had a couple of bites of one – as yet unfrosted because that is happening after naptime – and it is moist, light, chocolately. I do not taste the beer but I do taste the richness. Best of all, the recipe only called for half the bottle of beer which means I got to play a thrilling round or eight of “The Baking With Children Drinking Game” which goes like this:

– every time toddler dips snotty fist into sugar and then licks it off and then prepares to dip again, take a drink
– every time baby screams from (UNFAIR, MAN!) confines of playpen, er, YARD, take a drink
– every time toddler asks if it is time to eat cupcakes yet, take a drink
– take two drinks if you are still stirring the batter and he is right there in front of it when he asks this question
– every time toddler takes fistful of cocoa and smears it on baby, take a drink
– while you are pouring batter into cupcake cups, as baby continues to scream his indignation, when toddler, who is still standing right there, asks “what are you doing, mommy?” take a drink.
– you get the idea.

Anyway, if you have stout lying around your house I highly recommend adding it to chocolate cupcakes, the end.

PS: I went with lemon shortbread this month, from the province of PEI website (does the BC government offer us recipes? I don’t think so. “Best place on earth” my left one) and it was quite good. I used the zest of one lemon and would happily have upped it to two if I had had two but I didn’t.

PPS: Wow we are going through a lot of butter.