Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

Nothing says Happy St. Patrick's Day like Guiness, Jameson Whiskey, Bailey's Irish Cream... or if you like Irish Car Bomb "shots", an explosive combination of all three! In this case, stout chocolate cupcakes, filled with an Irish creme ganache and topped with a fluffy Bailey's butter cream are DECADENT and delicious (and far less likely than the beverage version to leave you with a headache the next day.)

Makes 24 cupcakes

Cake Recipe:
2 sticks of butter
1 cup of Guiness
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the Guiness and cocoa powder until smooth. Remove from heat and let cool. Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking soda in a large bowl. In a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat the eggs and sour cream until smooth and creamy.

Add the butter, cocoa, Guiness mixture and mix well. Slowly add the dry ingredients with the mixer running on low- mix until just combined. Scraping down the side of the bowl at least once. Fill muffin lines 2/3 of the way with batter- bake for 14 minutes. (Rotate the pans in the oven half way through the baking time.)

While the cupcakes bake- make the ganache filling:

4 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon Bailey's Irish Cream

Shave/chop the chocolate with large knife. Transfer to a glass bowl. Heat the heavy cream in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat until barely simmering. Pour the cream over the chocolate and let sit for 3 minutes to melt the chocolate. Whisk until smooth (microwave for 10-15 seconds if you still have lumps of chocolate.) Add the butter and Bailey's and whisk until smooth and shiny. Transfer the ganache to a piping bag and cool in the refrigerator until it sets up to a thick frosting-like texture.

I used a piping tip with approximately a quarter inch diameter opening to punch out the centers of the cupcakes. This made the perfect little cranny to hold the ganache.
 
Once the ganache was thick enough to pipe (maybe 20 minutes or so in the fridge)- I piped a small amount into each. The ganache is quite rich- so you don't need much. If you're not a big chocolate person, you might omit the filling all together. (You could actually do a white chocolate Bailey's ganache as an alternative.)
  Lastly I made the Bailey's Irish Butter Cream:

1 1/4 sticks (or 10 tablespoons) of butter, softened to room temperature
1/3 cup of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 box (3-4 cups) of confectioner's sugar, sifted to remove any lumps
3-4 tablespoons of Bailey's Irish Cream Liquor
(You could add a splash of Jameson if you like- I didn't have any on hand.)

Beat the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer for 5-6 minutes until light and fluffy. (Both MUST be completely at room temperature.) Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula once or twice. Add the sugar and liquor and beat for another minute or two until light, fluffy and well combined. Spread or pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.

The fluffy white icing almost looks like the head on a draft Guiness beer. These are fantastic but not for the faint of heart. You certainly don't taste beer- rather the Guiness gives the chocolate a complex richness. The ganache gives a little extra dark chocolate zip and the fluffy Bailey's scented frosting is just YUMMY!

It would be great on a white cake spiked with a little Bailey's or even Kahlua. Could White Russian Cupcakes be next?! I'll have to work on some more cocktail - cupcake conversion recipes...