Wander. Sing. Cheer.

Happy Monday everyone! How did you celebrate St. Patrick's Day? It is one of my favorite holidays because I like to celebrate being Irish :) We threw an all out green party this Saturday and I made Irish car Bomb cupcakes (which I found on the "Formal Fringe" blog, thanks!). If you don't know what an Irish Car Bomb is, it's a shot of Bailey's and Jameson dropped into Guinness, and chug! I had actually never had one until Saturday. It tastes like a milkshake but the curdles kind of grossed me out.

All and all it was a success... The cupcakes are amazing.. Here is the recipe:

For the Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes:
1 cup Guinness (or another stout beer)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
⅔ cup sour cream

For the Jameson Ganache Filling:
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
⅔ cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
2 teaspoons Jameson Irish whiskey (If you’d like to skip this, just leave it out)

For the Bailey’s Irish Buttercream:
6 cups confections sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 to 8 tablespoons Bailey’s Irish Cream Liqueur (You can substitute the same amount of milk or heavy cream here)

MAKE THE CAKE:

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. Take it off the heat and allow it to cool slightly.

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in another large bowl to blend.

Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sour cream in yet another large bowl to blend (You might also want to bribe somebody to do the dishes for you with the promise of cupcakes). Then, add the cooled stout-chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and beat just to combine. Finally, add the flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Finish it off by using a rubber spatula to fold the batter until it’s completely combined.

Divide the batter among your cupcake liners, filling them roughly three-quarters of the way.

You can see I have no cupcake liners, I had to improvise since I didn't bake at home. If this is the same case with you, it's fine. Just make sure you grease your pan first.

Bake the cake at 350°F until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.

MAKE (AND PIPE!) THE FILLING:

Chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl.

Heat the cream in a saucepan until simmering and then pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth. (If this hasn’t sufficiently melted your chocolate, you can melt it in a double boiler or with around 20 seconds in the microwave.)

Add the butter and whiskey (if you’re using it) and stir until combined.

I let the chocolate cool until it was a little too hard for piping (which I wanted) so that way I could add more Jameson, it came out perfect!

Let the ganache cool on the counter until it’s thick but still soft enough to be piped.

Meanwhile, using a 1-inch round cookie cutter or a cupcake corer, cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. (I had to improvise again since I wasn't baking at home. If you don't have a cupcake corer or cookie cutter available just use a knife, but be gentle! It's okay if it's not pretty at first, your covering it with frosting later!)

Put the cooled 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 in the bowl of an electric mixer for several minutes. You want to get it very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar. The slower, the better. But if you’re impatient like me, try to slow it down to at least 1 cup at a time.

Once the frosting looks thick (mine resembled Play-doh more than frosting), 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.

I found that the recipe calls for a bit more powdered sugar than needed, I only used about 4 or 5 cups and I had way more frosting than I needed.

Ice and decorate the cupcakes.

I couldn't find any coins at the last minute, so I used Rolos, and you could use any candy with the gold foil.

At the last minute my sister also requested I make individual size Shepard Pies, so I don't have pictures, but I will make them again soon so I can share. The final product came out to die for!