In honor of St. Patrick's Day I give you Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes! These are, by far, the most requested cupcakes in this house! They are absolutely delicious! If you don't already have some Guinness and Bailey's in the house, you should go get some. Today.
My cousin makes the most delicious cupcakes and not just your run-of-the-mill chocolate and vanilla. She made these and I was intrigued! Beer?? In a cupcake?!?! No way.
Yes, my friends. It's true. Guinness and chocolate make one heck of a cupcake!
She shared her source (Smitten Kitchen) and now I will share them with you! They're perfect for St. Patrick's Day, a birthday, a barbecue, a random Saturday… You get the idea!
Scroll down for the printable recipe...
After preheating the oven and lining your 24 cupcake cups, bring the Guinness and butter to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat. You'll then add the cocoa powder and whisk until it's smooth. While it's cooling, whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl to combine. Then, using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sour cream on medium speed until combined. Add the Guinness-chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and beat briefly. Fold it with a rubber spatula until it's completely combined. Pour into cupcake liners and bake about 17 minutes.
While the cupcakes are baking, make the ganache filling by chopping the chocolate and putting it into a heat proof bowl. Then heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for a minute while it melts the chocolate and then use your rubber spatula to stir it. Add the butter and whiskey and stir until combined. Let it cool until thick but still soft enough to pipe in a decorating bag.
You can either use a 1-inch round cookie cutter or a large decorating tip to cut the centers out of the cupcakes. I use a cupcake filling decorating tip instead. It's a Wilton #230 tip and is nice and long to reach into the cupcake. The opening is a little small and makes piping ganache difficult at times, but I find it's better than cutting the centers out and then filling them. With this tip, you just push it into the top of the cupcake, squeeze the bag to fill it, and you're done!
My favorite part about these cupcakes is making the Bailey's frosting. I spend a lot of time 'testing' to make sure I have the right amount of Bailey's. My husband often gets to help with the quality control too. He never minds!
If you have a stand mixer, fire it up!! If not, you can use your hand mixer to whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes. Reduce the speed and gradually add the powdered sugar until it has all been incorporated. Add the Bailey's and test. Add some more Bailey's. Test again. (You get the idea!) I've edited the recipe from the original because we like our icing to have a strong Bailey's taste. Honestly, I use way more than 1/4 cup! Feel free to use as much (or as little) as you want!
Now you can decorate the cupcakes with your favorite icing tip, a spatula, sprinkles, whatever! Sometimes I dye the icing green for St. Patrick's day. Here you can see I've added green sugar crystals.
A couple tips…
The icing will make exactly enough for the cupcakes. You can see in my photos about how much icing I used on them. It's very sweet and you really don't need much more. But, if you want more icing, go ahead and double the recipe.
And when I'm pressed for time, I leave out the ganache filling. I know, I know…it's not a car bomb without the whiskey! But chopping the chocolate and playing with a pastry bag is time consuming. I'd rather have the cupcakes without the ganache than no cupcakes at all! (My husband and his coworkers agree!)
So head out to the store and get everything you'll need to make these babies! You'll be happy you did!
Click HERE for the printable recipe. Enjoy!
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Yum! Must try!
ReplyDeleteWhen tax season is over, I have to share the cookie cutter site I found!
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