Stout and Beetroot Cupcakes

Today's guest post comes from my friend Ellie, we have got together a few times for baking sessions, our latest being Lemon and Courgette Cupcakes, read the post here.

Stout and Beetroot Cupcakes

Try this recipe for an unusual but yummy treat to discover who the adventurous folk are amongst your friends!

I found this recipe a while back and was so excited to try it as I was newly venturing into the world of vegetable-based baking. I got all my bits together one Sunday afternoon only to realise I had everything but the cupcake cases, and the shops were closed! So I got my thinking cap on and made my own cases from squares of greaseproof paper. They were 5-inches squared, a great size for my muffin tin, and I squished them into shape using a glass pressed into the tin. I later used 4-inch square pieces and had a great result with that too... it really depends how much cream cheese frosting you’re going to pile on that needs to be contained!

It’s an easy recipe and they came out of the oven very spongy and tasty looking as you can see in this photo.

I made the delicious topping and dolloped it on, then packed them up ready to take to work.

Initially my fellow work folk weren’t sure about trying them, there was lots of tentative sharing and dubious nibbles being taken, until they realised how tasty they were and soon they were snapped up! Only this little blighter remained at the end of the day...

...but not for long.

Ingredients
75g/2¾oz cocoa powder
175g/6oz plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
225g/8oz caster sugar
3 free-range eggs
225g/8oz cooked beetroot (no added vinegar)
100ml/3½fl oz Irish stout (Guinness or other)
100ml/3½fl oz oil (sunflower, vegetable or corn)

For the cream cheese icing
200g/7oz unsalted butter, softened
200g/7oz full-fat cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla essence (or as much as you fancy to taste)
450g/1lb icing sugar

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases, or make your own from greaseproof paper as I did.
2. Sift the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and sugar into a bowl. 
3. Blend the eggs, stout and oil in a food processor until smooth.
4. Grate the beetroot.
5. Stir the beetroot and stout mixture into the flour mixture until just combined (do not mix too much, just fold it in gently).
6. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases and cook in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the cupcakes have risen and the tops are springy to the touch. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
7. For the cream cheese icing, beat the butter, cream cheese and vanilla essence together in a bowl until smooth; then slowly beat in the icing sugar.
8. Spread the icing onto the muffins with a knife or spoon the icing into a piping bag and pipe the icing onto the muffins.
9. Eat!

Thanks Ellie, when you mentioned this recipe before I couldn't help but think they sounded rather odd, but they do look delicious so I will have to reserve judgment until you make me some...if you want to find out more about Ellie and her exciting career in telly head over to her website .