Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, guys! I've sort of been on a "bake cupcakes for the relevant holiday" lately. On March 15th, my dad wished me a happy Ides of March. Having never read Julius Caesar, I didn't know what the Ides of March was and immediately went into panic because I hadn't thought of any sort of cupcake for the holiday. Luckily, the Ides of March is when Brutus stabbed the holy smokes out of Caesar and that just doesn't really call for any sort of celebratory cupcakes. Saint Patrick's Day, however, totally does. So I made some Irish Car bomb cupcakes. An Irish car bomb is half of a shot of Irish Whiskey and a half of a shot of Irish cream, dropped into Guinness and chugged before you keel over from the disgustingness of it. I have never actually had one but it sounds absolutely terrible. So instead, I incorporated the drink recipe into a cupcake recipe. Guinness infused chocolate cupcakes with irish whiskey ganache and irish cream buttercream. Just your everyday alcoholic cupcakes. They were pretty delicious too and I only ran into one major problem: my bank account. I have always heard "only cook with wine you would drink". I'm assuming this goes for liquor too. As a college student though with meager pickings in my bank account, my interpretation of "only cook with liquor you would drink" is WAY more lenient than the chefs I have heard preach these words... Though I'm sure these cupcakes could have been much better had I had sufficient funding for nicer liquor, they were still pretty darn delicious. The original recipe came from Will Cook For Friends.

Alex and the brethren Vallejos just enjoying some cupcakes on a uniquely sunny day in the Eug

CAKE:

1 cup Guinness Stout

2 Sticks butter

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups flour

2 cups white sugar

1 1/2 t baking soda

3/4 t salt

2 eggs

2/3 cup plain yogurt

In a saucepan over medium heat, bring the beer and butter to a simmer. Once it is simmering, whisk the cocoa into the pot. Remove from the heat when the mixture is smooth. Let cool for 10 minutes.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. In yet another bowl, combine the eggs and yogurt and beat to combine. Poor the cooled chocolate beer mixture into the egg bowl and beat. slowly add the dry ingredient, mixing on low until completely combined. Divide among a lined muffin tin and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Let cool.

GANACHE:

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1-2 T irish whiskey

Heat the heavy cream in a small saucepan to almost boiling. Remove from heat and pour over the chocolate chips and mix vigorously until all of the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Add the whiskey, keeping in mind A LOT GOES A LONG WAY, and mix to combine. 

Once the cupcakes have cooled, hollow out the center with a small knife (I like paring knives), and pipe or spoon the ganache in the center of the cupcake. I find piping to be a bit easier since it can be a little sticky.

IRISH CREAM BUTTERCREAM:

1 1/2 Sticks butter at room temp.

4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup irish cream (or just to taste really)

Beat the butter until fluffy and slowly add the powdered sugar until combined and smooth. Add the irish cream and beat to incorporate. This is sort of a taste thing. The irish cream can get a little zippy in the back of your throat so use as much or as little as you want. Pipe onto your already cooled and ganched cupcakes!

I sprinkled mine with green sugar. Just place some granulated sugar in a bowl or ziplock bag and put a few drops of food coloring in and mix it around until the sugar is all green. These cupcakes were way better the next day. Once all of the alcohol had a chance to sort of settle, they were much better and didn't have quite as much of a twang. They just needed to merry up a bit overnight like leftover italian food. They were definitely delicious though.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

xoxo,

KG