St. Patty’s Day Cupcakes

At work, our teams like to set up pot lucks for just about any reason we can think of lol.  Who doesn’t like to eat good food, right?!  In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I made “Irish Car Bomb”-style cupcakes sans whisky (I figured that the Guinness® beer and Bailey’s® Irish cream were enough alcohol for a workday).  I also learned that people in Ireland don’t know what this drink is (it was made up in Connecticut in the late 70’s), and it is probably going to be offensive to someone from Ireland (if they have heard of it), as the name comes from “The Troubles” Ireland faced in the late 1960’s, which included bombing of cars.  Learned something new, right?

This recipe is adapted from Annie’s Eats (http://www.annies-eats.com/2009/10/16/guinness-baileys-cupcakes/)

Stout Beer and Irish Cream Cupcakes

Yields: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

-1 cup stout (Guinness)

-16 tbsp. unsalted butter

-¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

-2 cups all-purpose flour

-2 cups sugar

-1½ tsp. baking soda

-¾ tsp. salt

-2 large eggs

-2/3 cup sour cream

-1 batch ganache

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F/176° C.  Line two cupcake pans with paper liners.

2. Combine the stout and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.  There is no picture for this because of a disaster that occurred… and I’ll leave it at that.

dry ingredients!

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.

eggs and sour cream

4. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the eggs and sour cream to blend.

5. Add the stout-butter mixture and beat just to combine. No picture for this… Sorry!

Folded flour mixture in

6. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed just until incorporated.  I folded/stirred it in manually with a large spoon.

7. Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake liners, filling them about 2/3 to ¾ full.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 17 minutes.

8. Allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

9. Prepare ganache. Add 2 tablespoons Irish Cream* and mix well.  Allow ganache to set in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.  Swirl each cupcake in the ganache and allow to set.

 

*Per the usual, I did not have Irish Cream and was not willing to spend $3.20 on one of those mini bottle from the liquor store.  I found a recipe online that turned out pretty yummy, and did not add whiskey (because, surprise surprise, I didn’t have whiskey).  It was probably for the better, considering I am taking these to work.  I half-ed the recipe, adapted from the Cupcake Project: http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2009/12/homemade-baileys-irish-cream-youll.html.

If you are feeling adventurous and want to make it like the bar drink, Annie’s Eats adapted the recipe from smitten kitchen (http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2009/01/car-bomb-cupcakes/), which had whiskey ganache filling and an Irish cream frosting, along with the Guinness cupcake.  Happy drink… er… eating!