Boozy Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

I am not Irish.. at all.. 

I did grow up celebrating St. Paddy's however with my best friend Maureen and her very Irish family.  In 6th grade I went to her house after school on St. Patrick's Day, and when I opened the fridge at her house, her Mom had dyed the milk green.. and I remember freaking out, being so confused! What was all this green stuff? Such a funny memory :) 

St. Paddy's was a blast in college.. from what I can remember..... Blarney Blowout at UMass was a religion, back when it was just drunken fun and there weren't cops with bullets and student arrests plastered on the front of Yahoo.com... Happy to see that didn't happen again this year!

I guess I am super off topic here.. What I am trying to say is that St. Patrick's Day has always been a fun one to celebrate! This year we won't be doing any drinking or partying, but I did whip up some of the best cupcakes I've ever made, complete with three kinds of booze... and brought them to work! HA! 

Guinness & Butter

These are Guinness chocolate cupcakes with Irish whiskey ganache filling topped with Bailey's butter cream.. Holy heart attack but SO worth it. Yes I had one for breakfast. Yes I'll be running three miles on the treadmill and doing HEAVY dead lifts tonight... Life's about balance, right? ;)

The best thing about these cupcakes is the balance of flavors. This is not a sugary sweet chocolate cake like you'd have for a birthday cake. The sugar content is much lower, and there is a higher amount of unsweetened cocoa powder for a more muted sugar flavor. The beer just mutes it even more.. The ganache definitely has a bite (I used more unsweetened chocolate) and the whiskey adds a tart flavor.  All is balanced with the butter cream, which is very sweet and creamy! 

These aren't hard to make! Three separate ingredients from scratch can be daunting.. If you are afraid to attempt, just skip out on the ganache and go for regular cupcakes! Still just as tasty! 

 

For the Guinness chocolate cupcakes:

1 stick of butter, room temp

1/2 cup Guinness beer

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup flour

3/8 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup dutch processed cocoa powder

pinch of salt

1 egg

1/3 cup sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. On the stovetop, melt butter and Guinness over medium heat until simmering.

3. Whisk together sugar, flour, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt. 

4. In a seperate bowl, mix egg and sour cream until combined.

5. Once the butter/Guinness mixture is simmering, remove from stove and pour into the egg/sour cream mixture. Mix until combined. 

6. Add the sugar/flour mixture and mix just until combined! Do not over mix!

7. Put into cupcake wrappers and bake for 17 minutes. 

Let cupcakes cool, then dig out little center holes for the ganache filling. 

For the Irish whiskey ganache:

4oz unsweetened dark chocolate

1/3 cup heavy cream

1 tbsp butter

1 tsp Jameson Irish whiskey 

1. Finely chop chocolate into small pieces and place into a heatproof bowl.

2. Heat heavy cream on stove top over medium heat until simmering. Pour simmering cream over chocolate. Let stand for 1 minute.

3. Whisk the chocolate and cream mixture until combined.

4. Add butter and whiskey. Mix again until combined.

5. Let it cool but it must still be warm enough to pipe. Pipe into the centers of the cupcakes. 

For the Bailey's Buttercream:

1/4 cup Bailey's Irish Creme (I used two nips)

2.5 cups of confectioners sugar

1/2 cup butter (1 stick) at room temp

1. In a stand mixer, cream butter until it if white and fluffy, about 5 minutes. 

2. Add in sugar and Bailey's, alternating and mixing in between additions until all is combined. 

3. Whip for 6-8 minutes until soft and creamy. Pipe onto cupcakes.

Finally, DEVOUR! .. for breakfast if you want ;) 

St. Paddys baking is always a favorite of mine!! Here are some pot O' gold cake pops from two years ago.. These were so adorable and fun to present, people loved them!

OH something else fun happened today -- I purchased my own domain! Now you can visit me directly at www.onesweetbiteatatime.com ! Woo Hoo!

-Elena