Because St. Patrick's day is coming up, and a potluck at a friend's place here at school I decided to make some Irish Car bomb cupcakes. I had seen them about a month ago on a website and really wanted to make them but found the level of work necessary to be a little daunting. It is a pretty involved process as the recipe calls for stout chocolate cupcakes, whiskey chocolate ganache and bailey's icing. Plus, the actual assembly of the finished product requires you to remove the centre of the cupcake, pipe the ganache into the hole, and then add the bailey's icing on top.
So Saturday morning I decided to take on this feat, partially because I also wanted to see if I could actually do it. It took me around 3 hours from beginning to start, and came to 20 cupcakes. Here's the recipe from a blog, although I have seen it in a number of places...
Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes Source: Smitten Kitchen
1 c. Guinness
1 c. unsalted butter
3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 c. all purpose flour
2 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
2/3 c. sour cream
Ganache Filling
8 oz bittersweet chocolate
2/3 c. heavy cream
2 tbsp butter, room temperature
2 tsp Jameson Whiskey
Baileys Frosting (I doubled this recipe)
3 to 4 c. confections sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 to 4 tbsp Baileys
Cupcakes: 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. 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 stout-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, about 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.
Ganache 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. Meanwhile, 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. Put the 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, 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 beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.
Ice and decorate the cupcakes.The process was much easier than I thought, and was more time consuming than anything. And came out absolutely delicious! Needless to say everyone was impressed with them and weren't sure if I was actually lying about making them. Up next, early grey cupcakes!
