: i'm not irish, but kiss me anyway :

Every year comes a holiday that celebrates red and green*. And a holiday that celebrates pink, yellow and green**. And then there's that holiday that celebrates all things green***.

But why does it always have to be about green? What makes green so special? Why do colours like brown and black always get overlooked?

Well, I'm about turn this holiday upside down. Brown is back.

A very dark brown, to be specific.

I was asked to make some cupcakes for a St. Patrick's Day breakfast event last Friday, and I had been seeing lots of "stout cupcakes" around the blog-o-sphere. Nigella Lawson (my idol) has a fantastic recipe for a Guinness Chocolate Cake that I decided to adapt to make Guinness mini cupcakes.

I love Guinness.

I love cupcakes.

It's genius!

To make it even more celebratory, I decided to make the mini cupcakes in little cups and pipe my frosting to make it look like mini pints of Guinness.



They may not have gotten anyone drunk, but they sure did get everyone in the St. Patrick's Day spirit!


Cheers!

Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Guinness Cake (makes approx. 30 mini cupcakes)

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup Guinness (or other stouts)
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups plain flour (*I used cake flour)
2 cups sugar (*I used one cup of white sugar, one cup of brown sugar)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Directions:
1. Combine melted butter, stout and cocoa powder in a large bowl.
2. Add the eggs and sour cream and mix thoroughly.
3. Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt into the wet ingredients and combine thoroughly.
4. Pour batter into oven-proof paper cups (I line mine with parchment paper for easy removal).
5. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until a toothpick pushed into the center comes out clean (around 15-25 minutes depending on your oven).


Chocolate Fluffy Frosting

Ingredients:
1 cup white sugar
1/3 cup water
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 egg whites
1-2 T Chocolate syrup, or to taste (ie. Nestle Quik)

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, stir together the sugar, water and cream of tartar. Cook over medium-high heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is bubbly.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whip the egg whites and vanilla to soft peaks. Gradually add the sugar mixture while whipping constantly until stiff peaks form, about 7 to 10 minutes.
3. Add chocolate syrup to taste.


*Christmas
**Easter
***If you don't know this by now, you don't deserve to