"Snake Bite" Cupcake with Harp and Wyder's Pear Cider

I consider myself to be somewhat of a wine connoisour, but not at all someone with a refined palate for beer. I pretty much only like lagers and I definitely prefer my beer with some sort of fruit infusion (i.e. Shocktop Tangerine, Pyramid Audacious Apricot, etc). This is exactly the reason why I was inspired to create a "snake bite" cupcake for St. Patrick's Day, inspired by the Yard House version of the drink. While a traditional "snake bite" consists of half Guinness and half Pear Cider, The Yard House version uses Harp (an Irish lager), instead of Guinness, and Pear Cider. Since I wanted to make a yellow cake for the snake bite cupcake, Harp worked well for my purposes. Plus, I figured it was a fun way to pay unique homage to a more traditional Guinness chocolate cupcake.

The entire recipe I used is adapted from a champagne cupcake created by Sprinkle Bakes (my favorite dessert blog to date).

For the cupcakes: (Makes 15-17 cupcakes)
Ingredients

1/2 cup butter softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups cake flour, sifted
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup Harp
1/4 cup Wydmer's Pear Cider

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add vanilla. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside. in a medium sized bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup champagne and 1/2 cup sour cream (mixture will fizz and bubble a little). Add flour and champagne mixture alternately. Scrape bottom and sides of the bowl and mix until batter is well combined (do not overmix)

"Snake Bite" Pastry Creme Filling:

1/2 cup heavy cream, divided
1/4 cup Harp
1/4 cup Wydmer's Pear Cider
1/4 cup pear puree (to make puree, use canned pears or pears from a jar and blend until pureed, then strain with sieve)
2 tbsp cornstarch
5 tbsp granulated sugar
1 whole egg
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla

In a medium bowl, whisk cornstarch in 1/4 cup of heavy cream. Combine the remaining heavy cream, sugar and 1/2 cup beer and cider mixture in a saucepan; bring to a boil then remove from heat.

Beat the whole egg and egg yolks into the cornstarch/heavy cream mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling champagne mixture into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so the eggs do not cook. Return the remaining beer/cider/heavy cream mixture to a boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla. Allow mixture to cool fully.

Cut a hole into the top of each cupcake and fill with pastry cream. Trim the cut-out cake pieces flat to make a "lid" and place on top.

Pear Frosting:

1 cup plus 2-3 Tbsp pear cider (depending on consistency)
2 sticks of butter softened
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup pear puree

Place 1 cup of pear cider in a small saucepan. Simmer over medium-high heat until reduced to 2 tablespoons. Transfer to a small bowl or condiment cup and allow to cool.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, cream softened butter and powdered sugar together. Once the frosting is thick and fluffy, pour in the reduced 2 tbsp. pear cider plus 2 tbsp from the bottle and mix well. Add a few drops of green and yellow food coloring and decorate as desired.