Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

When someone first told me about Irish Car Bomb cupcakes, my reaction was, "How in the hell could something so amazing exist without my knowledge?"  My second reaction was: I need to find an excuse to make those delicious treats.

With St. Patty's Day almost upon us and it being my favorite Irishman's 31st birthday and all, I decided to give them a whirl.  I got my cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen (which seems to unanimously be the favorite car bomb cupcake recipe of everyone on the internet), but used my own frosting recipe and omitted the chocolate whiskey ganache filling in favor of piping some of the Irish cream frosting mixture inside of the cupcakes instead.

I hope you enjoy these perfect little desserts as much as we did!

Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes

(This recipe makes 2 dozen cupcakes.)

1 cup Guinness
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt

Irish Cream Frosting

1 lb. box confectioner's (powdered) sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup Irish Cream

For the Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Add 1 cup of Guinness:

and 2 sticks unsalted butter to small saucepan over medium heat:

After butter has melted, add 3/4 cup of cocoa powder and whisk to mix completely.  Allow mixture to cool slightly.

While the Guinness, butter, and cocoa mixture is cooling, beat eggs and sour cream together with an electric mixer until smooth:

Add stout-butter-cocoa mixture to the egg-sour cream mixture and combine until smooth:

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl and add to stout-butter-cocoa-egg-sour cream mixture in three additions, stirring well to combine after each addition.

Divide batter among 24 lined cupcake tins, filling each tin approximately 3/4 full:

Bake cupcakes for 17 minutes (or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean):

Transfer cupcakes to wire rack and cool completely.


For the Irish Cream Frosting:

In electric mixer using whisk attachment, whisk 1 stick room temperature butter with box of powdered sugar until just smooth.  Add vanilla extract and Irish Cream - I had this bottle of Carolans lying around from a night of Copper Camel drinking (if you've never had a Copper Camel, make one - they're delicious), but of course Bailey's would work just as well:

Stir to combine.  Frosting should be slightly stiff, but creamy, like so:

(If the frosting is too liquidy/not stiff enough, add more powdered sugar.  If the frosting is to firm, add more Irish Cream.)

Either simply top the cupcakes with the frosting, or use a knife to cut a hole in the center of the cupcakes and pipe some frosting in.