morgan autumn levy

Today I made Yazoo Dos Perros cupcakes for Christy’s birthday since she was having a shindig at the Yazoo taproom and I like to get all matchy matchy with birthday themes (happy birthday, crusty! xoxo). 44 of them disappeared in a couple hours, so I think they turned out all right, and since I sort of made up the recipe I decided to blog it so that if I ever need to re-make these cupcakes I’ll be able to. Sorry to people who don’t like to read recipes on Tumblr!

For the cupcakes: 

I adapted this recipe for Chocolate Stout Cake from Epicurious. I followed it pretty closely, subbing the Dos Perros beer for the stout in the recipe. Forgot to add the cocoa powder until the end, but no harm done. Dos Perros is a Mexican style beer with chocolate notes, so I added cinnamon to complement. At the end I also added a reduction of the beer (to intensify the beer’s flavor in the final baked product) and some malted milk powder to keep that malt-y flavor. Baking time was 25-30 minutes for cupcakes. This recipe makes 4 dozen cupcakes, so halve it for a more reasonable amount.

2 cups Dos Perros, plus 1 bottle for reduction
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
4 cups all purpose flour
4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 large eggs
1 1/3 cups sour cream
1-2 tablespoons of cinnamon
1/4 cup malted milk powder
1/4 cup Dos Perros reduction

Preheat oven to 350°F. Bring 2 cups stout and 2 cups butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, malted milk powder and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Add Dos Perros reduction. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide into lined cupcake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes. 

For the frosting: 

I adapted this recipe for Blue Moon cupcakes by Miss Make which I fully intend to make one day. I liked it because the frosting was supposed to be light and airy, just like the foam on top of a beer! And it totally worked. I just made minor changes here - swapped the 1/3 cup water for 1/3 cup of Dos Perros, and subbed lime juice for the orange juice (again with the Mexican beer thing). Garnished them with little lime wedges so they looked less like something that a 5th grader cranked out, and voila! Dos Perros cupcakes. 

2 egg whites, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp lime juice
1 c sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/3 c Dos Perros

In a saucepan, mix sugar, beer and cream of tartar. Cook on medium heat until sugar is dissolved and mixture is bubbly. In a separate large bowl, beat egg whites, vanilla and lime juice until soft peaks form. Slowly add hot sugar mixture, beating continuously. Beat for 7 minutes until stiff peaks form.