Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

Is it St. Patrick's Day yet!?!??!?!?! It's taken forever to get here. And to celebrate it, let's make some Irish Car Bomb cupcakes!

I wish wish wish that I was the person who came up with this recipe. But unfortunately I'm not that amazing yet. Thanks go out to Smitten Kitchen for this recipe. I stumbled it when I was on the prowl for beer cupcakes to make for Superbowl XLIV . (Honestly, at this point it would be more shocking if I wasn't baking alcohol into my cupcakes. ) I was really looking for some sort of Saints- or Colts-inspired cupcake, but as soon as I saw this Irish Car Bomb cupcake recipe in front of me, I knew what I had to do.

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes
recipe makes from Smitten Kitchen, makes 24 cupcakes

Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes Ingredients

• 1 cup Guinness
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup sour cream

Ganache Filling Ingredients

• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 1 to 2 teaspoons Irish whiskey (optional, but why would you make this cupcake without it!)
  

Baileys Frosting Ingredients

• 3 to 4 cups confections sugar
• 1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3 to 4 tablespoons Baileys (or milk, or heavy cream, or a combination thereof)

For the cupcakes:

1) Preheat oven to 350°F.

2) Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat.

3) Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

4) Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in large bowl to blend.

5) Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined.

6) Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way.

7) Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.

For the filling:

1) Chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl.

2) Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth. (If this has not sufficiently melted the chocolate, you can return it to a double-boiler to gently melt what remains. My preference is to stick it in the microwave for 20 seconds. Watch carefully if you do this.)

3) Add the butter and whiskey, then stir until combined. Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped.

4) Cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. (You can use a grapefruit knife for easier cutting, but I just used a regular steak knife because it was close by.) You want to go most of the way down the cupcake but not cut through the bottom — aim for 2/3 of the way.

5) Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip (or a plastic Ziploc bag with a corner snipped off) and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.

For the Frosting:

1) Whip the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, for several minutes. You want to get it very light and fluffy.

2) Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time. Slowly. The frosting may clump up. This is OK.

3) When the frosting is thick, drizzle in the Baileys and whip until combined. If this has made the frosting too thin (it shouldn’t, but just in case) beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.

4) Ice and decorate the cupcakes.

Yum! I accidentally added more Jameson than the recipe called for. But not to worry, I just continued to whip the ganache together and all was well. If you're looking for a car bomb-like taste, you won't exactly get that. However, the individual flavors are definitely present and they all mesh well together. These are a perfect addition to your St. Patty's Day party!