We bought a growler of stout beer and made a bunch of extra quinoa. In what world do those two ingredients make the best cupcake ever?
This world.
A total experiment, I only half expected this recipe to work. What resulted was one of my most favourite creations yet. I mean really, whenever you put beer and sugar together you’re bound to get an incredible result, but the fact that these are completely gluten free and packed full of quinoa just upped the incredible-factor.
Well….not completely gluten free….
I had a ‘duh’ moment when I realized “of course….beer has gluten in it”. Oops!
If you need a gluten free option and you’re lucky enough to have gluten free beer in your area, use that instead. Otherwise, swap out the stout for milk. It may not be a stout cupcake, but it’ll still taste darn good.
Enjoy friends – the gluten free(ish) quinoa chocolate stout cupcakes topped with chocolate stout icing.
Cake recipe adapted from Barefeet in the Kitchen
- *Cupcake*
- 2 cups cooked quinoa, loosely packed
- ⅓ cup stout
- 4 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- ¾ cup butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1¼ cup white sugar
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- *Chocolate Stout Icing*
- 1 cup butter at room temperature
- 4 cups icing sugar
- ⅓ cup stout
- ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- Preheat oven to 350 and line your muffin pan with cupcake liners.
- Combine the stout, eggs, and vanilla in a large blender. Mix to combine ingredients. Add the cooked quinoa and butter, and puree until completely smooth, scraping down the sides as needed. Mix until as smooth as possible, preferably until it is a completely creamy mixture. My blender wasn't very strong so I still head some quinoa bits and it was just fine.
- Sift the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl then add the contents from the blender. Stir until well combined.
- Fill your cupcake liners ⅔ full. Place in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. Let it cool for a few minutes then transfer onto a cooling rack. Let it cool completely before icing.
- To make the icing, cream butter well by hand, with a hand blender or a stand mixer.
- /2 cup at a time, add 2 cups of icing sugar.
- Sift in the cocoa powder and add the stout. Whisk thoroughly, then continue to add the rest of the icing sugar in ½ cup batches.
- If it becomes too stiff, you can add a teaspoon of stout to thin it out. If it’s too thin, add more icing sugar until you achieve your desired consistency.
- Top your gluten free quinoa chocolate stout cupcakes with chocolate stout icing.
Just a note of caution, don’t feed this one to children.
Come back tomorrow for a cupcake any easter-candy-addict will want to sink they’re teeth into.
Quinoa cupcake? Wow. I love these odd cupcakes you’re posting. It makes me realize that the “typical” flour/egg/sugar/milk/fat combo can be modified more than we think. It’s giving me hope for more creative egg-free cakes!!
This is the only cupcake I’ve made that has eggs in it actually! I almost always bake egg free
Oh Man this one is a must try – your recipes are so creative and outside of the box! Cupcakes are my go to dessert! Thanks for all your hard work on this post, can’t wait to try it!
Let me know how they turn out!