Baileys + Cupcakes = Good

I finally made the Irish Car Bomb cupcakes (or Guinness and Bailey's Irish Cream Cupcakes to be PC) from Annie's Eats for tailgating yesterday. So good - I only made a half batch since we only had 6 people but I probably wouldnt have had leftovers if I had made the full batch. Definitely a recipe I'll be making again in the future. The recipe below has my slight adaptations.


Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes
Recipe from Annie's Eats and Smitten Kitchen
Makes 24 cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes

1 cup stout beer (I used Smithwick's Irish Ale because the hubs doesnt like Guinness and I didnt want to buy a 6 pack of something he wouldnt at least like)
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare muffin pans by either lining with paper liners or buttering and flouring each cup. Combine beer and butter in a saucepan over medium heat and cook until melted, whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth and remove from heat. Let cool for a few minutes so you dont cook your eggs when you add it to the mix. In a mixing bowl, combine eggs and sour cream and beat until well combined. Add beer mixture and beat just until combined. Mix in the flour, sugar, soda and salt on low speed just until combined. Pour into muffin tins, filling each cup about 2/3 of the way full. (I like to add my batter to a large ziploc bag and snip off the corner and pipe into the muffin tins to make the process easier and less messy.) Bake about 15-17 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. After cooling about 10 minutes, remove from muffin tins and cool completely on a wire rack.

Bailey's Chocolate Ganache

2/3 cup heavy cream
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
2 T butter
2 tsp Bailey's Irish Cream liquor

In a microwave safe bowl or at least 2 cup measuring cup, heat heavy cream in the microwave for 30 second intervals until hot (mine took a little less than 1 min). Add chocolate and let sit for approx. 1 min until melted. Stir to combine, if necessary microwave for a few more seconds until smooth. Add butter and stir until melted and combined. Add Baileys and stir. Place in the refrigerator to cool, stirring occasionally until mixture is thickened enough to pipe into cupcakes (about 45 min to 1 hour). Cut a cone shaped pocket into the top of each cupcake to make space for the ganache filling. Fill a piping bag fitted with a wide tip (I used Wilton #12) or ziploc with corner snipped with the ganache and pipe into the center of each cupcake. (I covered and refrigerated overnight to continue to thicken the ganache and because I did the frosting the next morning.)

Bailey's Buttercream Frosting

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp meringue powder
3-4 cups powdered sugar
4 T Baileys
1-2 T milk

Cream butter in a mixing bowl for 2-3 minutes until creamy and smooth. Add Bailey's and mix in sugar and meringue powder just until smooth, adding milk as necessary. (You can add all Bailey's if you prefer but I thought the flavor was plenty strong with a mix.) Pipe on frosting as desired.