Recipe: Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes
St. Patrick’s Day is a big day for me and Kyle because one of our very first dates involved a lot of green beer and eggs on The Ohio State campus. Back then (about a million years ago), it was all about the Irish Car Bombs…a delicious drink with a very unfortunate name. An Irish Car Bomb involves pouring an entire can of Guinness into a glass and then dropping a shot glass filled with 1/2 Bailey’s and 1/2 Irish Whiskey into the glass of Guinness. You have to then drink the whole thing very quickly, before the Bailey’s curdles. I know it sounds ridiculous, but they’re pretty amazing and I think my husband holds the world record for most car bombs done in one night.
So, for this week’s holiday, I made some special cupcakes to take us back to our college days. They’re a Guinness chocolate cupcake with a whiskey filling and Bailey’s frosting on top and they are mmm mmm good. The big downside is that they’re also pretty alcoholic, so this is definitely a not-for-children recipe.
They turned out great…maybe a little too great, since I made 24 on Saturday and we only have 2 left. So, I thought I’d pass along the recipe in case any of you were feeling a little Irish…
Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes
Makes 20 to 24 cupcakes
Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes
1 cup Guinness
2 sticks (1 cup) of butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
Chocolate Whiskey Filling
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 to 2 teaspoons whiskey
Baileys Frosting
3 to 4 cups confections sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
3 to 4 tablespoons Baileys
Make the cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring 1 cup Guinness 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 Guinness-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 17 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. Add the butter and whiskey and stir until combined.
Fill the cupcakes:
Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped (the fridge will speed this along but you must stir it every 10 minutes). Meanwhile, using an apple corer or a grapefruit spoon, cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. You want to go most of the way down the cupcake but not cut through the bottom — aim for 2/3 of the way and circle it around until it comes out with the cake part inside. A slim spoon or grapefruit knife will help you get the center out. Save the crumbs and cake pieces. Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top. Top the ganace with the cake pieces you cut out. This will make it easier for you to put the frosting on. (Optional: you can skip putting the crumbs back so the ganache is exposed and just frost the edges of the cupcake.)
Make the frosting:
Whip the butter 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 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.
Put the frosting into a piping bag or Ziploc bag with the corner cut off and pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes. This frosting is pretty strong and sweet, so don’t use too much. A swirl or shamrock on top should be plenty.
The best part about these things is that the ganache in the center is
warm and gooey when you first fill the cupcakes, but by the
next day it’s like a whiskey truffle in the center
of the cake.
Yum.
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Recipe: Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes
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