Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes: A Holiday Recipe

The first last time I did a Irish car bomb was the night before I graduated from college, i.e. 8 years ago this May (o.m.g!).  For those unfamiliar, an Irish car bomb is comprised of a pint of Guinness and a shot glass of half Jameson Irish Whisky and half Bailey's Irish Cream.  You drop the shot glass in the Guinness and chug as fast as you can until it disappears it curdles and you say eww and stop. After that first and last experience, I'd pretty much forgotten about car bombs until I remembered these cupcakes on Smitten Kitchen when I needed a boozy dessert for our St. Patty's Day luncheon at work yesterday.  I omitted the Jameson ganache because I was feeling lazy and I don't love Jameson (sorry Jon!) Even sans ganache they were still very rich, very moist and very festive and the best part? Not curdled.

Cast of Cake Characters:
-1 cup of stout i.e. Guinness
-1 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup of cocoa powder
- 2 cups of flour
- 2 cups of sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp of baking soda
- 3/4 tsp of salt
- 2 large eggs
- 2/3 cup of sour cream

1) Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees and place 24 liners in two cupcake tins and set aside.

2)In a pot over medium heat, combine Guinness and butter and bring to a simmer.  Once simmering, whisk in the cocoa powder and mix until smooth and set aside.

3) In a medium bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

4) In a large bowl (or an electric mixer bowl), combine eggs and sour cream.  Add in the chocolate Guinness mixture from step one.  Beat until just combined.

5) Slowly begin adding in the flour mixture from step 3.  Make sure to mix on low and only until combined. Using a spatula fully fold the ingredients together.  You don't want to overmix the batter, or  it will get for lack of a better term, tough and will not rise well in the oven.

Pardon the mess, I used the wrong bowl to pour batter into cupcake liners. 

6) Fill your cupcake liners 2/3 to 3/4 of the way full. I thought mine were full enough and they were not. This dough does not puff up as much as typical cake batters (or I over beat mine as stated above) so feel free to fill them more than normal.

7) Bake cupcakes for approximately 17-18 minutes and let them cool completely.  While you wait you could wash your dishes, OR finish the Guiness you had to open for the cake. You can see what I opted for.

If you want to make the ganache go here but since I omitted it I'm skipping right to the Baileys buttercream frosting.

8) In a bowl beat 1/2 cup of unsalted, room temperature butter until smooth and creamy, this takes a few minutes.  Slowly begin adding in confectioner's sugar a few tablespoons at a time until the frosting starts to come together i.e. is spreadable.  This took me about 2 to 2.5 cups of confectioner's sugar (Deb says 3-4 cups so have that much available to you.)  If you like, add 3-4 tbsp of Baileys into the frosting and stir until blended.  If you do not like Baileys you can substitute milk for it.  

9)  Frost cupcakes and enjoy!

Like I said, these are decadent even without the ganache and they do taste a bit like a car bomb, but only in the best way.  I liked how moist the cake was and how nice the sweet buttercream frosting complimented it.  Have a Happy St. Patrick's Day!