Sláinte!

Nancy pointed me in the direction of this recipe a couple of months ago, and I thought that there was no better occasion to make Irish Car Bomb cupcakes St. Patrick's Day (well, the week of, anyway). Wheee, these have a lot of alcohol in them. The cake is extraordinarily moist and delicious, much better than previous Guinness cupcake recipes that I have tried. My ganache turned out very very strong (I admit to spilling a little bit of extra whiskey in there, ooops!), and I halved the recipe for that and was plenty. I also got tired of waiting for it to cool & thicken, so I added cocoa powder and it was perfect. I changed the frosting to a cream cheese based one, and now I have adjusted it to leave out 1 T. of Bailey's which would make it just right.

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

Makes 24

Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes
1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
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
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 to 2 teaspoons Irish whiskey (optional)

Baileys Frosting
1 8 oz. pkg of cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 C. confectioners sugar
3 tablespoons Baileys

Make the cupcakes:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners.
• Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
• Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend.
  
• 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.
  
• Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 20-25 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.

Make the filling:

• Chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. 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. 20 seconds in the microwave, watching carefully, will also work.)
• Add the butter and whiskey and stir until combined.
• Let cool. I whisked in about 1/3cup of cocoa powder to thicken it up which worked very well.

Fill the cupcakes:

• Cut centers out of the cupcakes using a round cookie cutter, an apple corer, or a knife. I used a knife. You want to go most of the way down the cupcake but not cut through the bottom — aim for 2/3 of the way.
  
• Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.
  

Make the frosting:

• Whip the butter and cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, for several minutes. You want to get it very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time.
• When the frosting looks thick enough to spread, drizzle in the Baileys (or milk) and whip it 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.

Ice and decorate the cupcakes. Dust with cocoa powder.

Good to go - off to spread some Irish cheer!