Superbowl Football Cupcakes

To make the chocolate cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350 F. Line two 12-count cupcake pans with baking liners. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, heat up the stout beer until it reaches a boil. Remove from the heat and set aside.

In a large bowl, sift together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the eggs, milk, olive oil and vanilla. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the dry ingredients until fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the stout beer. Mix until the batter is smooth. The batter will be thin.

Divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners. Bake the cupcakes until a toothpick inserted into a couple of cupcakes comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes. Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for one minute and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

While the cupcakes are cooling, make the chocolate sugar cookies. Increase the oven heat to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and the confectioner’s sugar. Beat in the egg and the vanilla and mix to combine. Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt and beat until a thick dough has formed.

Lay out a piece of parchment paper and place the dough on top of the parchment paper. Place another piece of parchment paper on top and roll out the dough until it is ¼-inch thick. Transfer the rolled out dough to the freezer to firm up, about 10 minutes.

Peel off the top piece of parchment paper and using a small football cookie cutter (you can also use a small circle and carve it into a football shape), cut out the cookies and then carefully transfer them to the prepared baking sheet.

Bake the cookies until they have set, about 7 minutes. Then remove them from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for a couple minutes. Then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely.

While the cookies are cooling, make the chocolate buttercream. Cream the butter in the bowl of stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, about 5 minutes. Add the confectioner’s sugar and salt and mix, gradually increasing in speed until the sugar is fully incorporated. Add the extract and cocoa and whisk until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. You may need to stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl a couple times.

When the cookies have cooled, you can either leave the cookies as is or decorate them with royal icing to make them look more like a football. My favorite royal icing recipe is from Sweet Sugar Belle. I recommend using her recipe as well. Set aside when finished with the cookies.

Before you assemble the cupcakes, dye the shredded coconut green. Place the coconut in a bowl and then sprinkle a few drops of food coloring on top. Stir until the food coloring has completely colored the coconut.

To assemble the cupcakes, place the buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Pipe a large dollop of buttercream on top of each cupcake. Place about 1 tablespoon of green coconut on top of the buttercream. Top each cupcake with a chocolate football cookie.

Cookie recipe adapted from The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle. Cupcake inspiration from Mini Baker.