Ginger Stout Cupcake (by guest blogger and lead baker Jenne!)

It's difficult to talk about beer and cake without talking about stout and chocolate.  What we've got here is somthing a little different - a ginger stout cake.  Stout is dark and generally for hibernating in the winter.  The Wedge's Imperial Stout is especially dark, especially delicious, and especially wonderful for this particular cake.  In addition to being chocolatey it's a little fruity (their website was kind enough to pinpoint the fruit for me: raspberry!)  This fruitiness is what makes it so great for the ginger cake - though the baking process subdues the stouty flavor the resulting cake maintains the deep flavor of the beer and the fruitiness is allowed to mingle with pieces of crystalized ginger.  This cake is moist, light, fluffy, refreshing and delicious topped with cream cheese frosting and an extra little piece of ginger.