Birthdays, Cupcakes and BACON!!!

So, I’ve got a birth­day com­ing up this week. Apparently it’s a big one, as Tuesday is my last day of youth. At the stroke of mid­night early Wednesday morn, I will enter my 30^th year. Am I wor­ried about it or stressed out about becom­ing old? No. Not really. Whether it’s 30, 40, 50, etc. I don’t really care as long as I’m with those I love. This year was no excep­tion as my lit­tle sis­ter flew in from New York to sur­prise me for my birth­day (thanks for mak­ing me cry in pub­lic, Annalise!). And to fur­ther prove to me that I could not have ended up with a bet­ter wife, one whose amaz­ing­ness I do not deserve, Megan made me two kind of cup­cakes, coconut cup­cakes made with fresh coconut and Chocolate Guinness Bacon cup­cakes. Yeah, you read that right. Keep read­ing for more pic­tures and the recipe.

For the coconut cup­cakes, Megan fol­lowed Alton Brown’s recipe from Good Eats. They were freak­ing deli­cious, burst­ing with coconut flavour in every bite. She even hand whisked the egg whites for what was described to me as an eter­nity to form stiff peaks. Man, do we need a KitchenAid Stand Mixer!

The recipe for the Chocolate Guinness Bacon Cupcakes came from the most delight­fully unlikely of places: an online forum called Jews for Bacon. They were awe­some. Sweet and smokey, hearty and smooth, they make the per­fect desert and the per­fect break­fast! These were a great addi­tion to a great night with friends. I had an entire ger­man restau­rant sing me happy birth­day lead by a drunken polka band leader! Thanks to all who came and left extra cup­cakes for me!

My friends loudly sang Happy Birthday to me. It was beautiful.

Chocolate Guinness Bacon Cupcakes

For Cake:

1 cup Guinness beer
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted but­ter
3/4 cup unsweet­ened cocoa pow­der (prefer­ably Dutch-process)
2 cups all pur­pose flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 tbsp. bak­ing soda
3/4 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
5 strips cooked bacon, chopped, 2 strips worth reserved for topping

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease muf­fin pans (makes roughly 30 stan­dard cup­cakes). Bring beer and but­ter to a sim­mer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa pow­der and whisk until mix­ture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, bak­ing soda, and salt in large bowl to blend. Using elec­tric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add beer-chocolate mix­ture to egg mix­ture and beat just to com­bine. Add flour mix­ture and beat briefly on slow speed. Add bacon bits. Using rub­ber spat­ula, fold bat­ter until com­pletely com­bined. Fill cups of muf­fin pans and bake until tooth­pick inserted into cen­ter of cakes comes out clean, about 25 – 30 min­utes. Transfer cakes to rack and cool 10 min­utes. Turn cakes out onto rack and cool completely

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, soft­ened
1/4 cup unsalted but­ter (1/2 stick), soft­ened
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups pow­dered sugar, sifted
pinch of salt

With an elec­tric mixer, blend together cream cheese and but­ter until smooth.  Turn mixer to low speed and blend in remain­ing ingre­di­ents. Turn mixer on high and beat until light and fluffy. Refrigerate for at least 30 min­utes. Spread Frosting over top of each cup­cake and sprin­kle with bacon bits.