Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

As you can tell from the picture above… these should probably be called Irish-American Car Bomb Cupcakes.  This past Monday was JP’s 21^st birthday!  He has one sole passion in life: John Deere.  While JP knew he was getting cupcakes brought to his Ultimate Frisbee game on Sunday, Sam bought some cupcake toppers to surprise him with.  As opposed to when I made the Irish Car Bomb Cake, I used a mixture of cake and all-purpose flour, which actually seemed to make the cupcakes a little fluffier (the cake was very dense).  Everyone on the team loved the cupcakes and it was (hopefully) a little bit of a morale booster after their close, and sad, loss to Purdue’s team.

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

Adapted from Une-Deux Senses

For the Guinness chocolate cupcakes:

• 1 cup stout beer/ Guinness
• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 2 large eggs (make sure they're at room temperature)
• 2/3 cup sour cream

For the Bailey's ganache filling:

• 8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 tbsn. butter, room temperature
• 2 tsp. Bailey's Irish cream

For the Bailey's buttercream frosting:

• 8 tbsn. unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3-4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 4 - 8 tbsn. Bailey's Irish cream (I used just a little more than this)

 Directions:

1. To make the cupcakes, preheat oven to 350 F. Line a cupcake tin with liners and set aside.
2. Combine stout and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the cocoa and whisk until smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
3. In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat together the eggs and sour cream to blend.
5. Add stout mixture and beat to combine. Mix in dry ingredients on low until incorporated.
6. Divide batter among cupcake liner about 2/3 full and bake until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Cool completely.
7. To make the ganache, place chocolate in heatproof bowl.
8. Heat cream in saucepan until simmering, then pour over chocolate, let sit for 1 minute, then stir until smooth.
9. Add butter and Bailey's and stir until combined. Set aside until cool and thick enough to be piped (you can use the refrigerator to speed the process but stir every 10 minutes to ensure even cooling). Meanwhile, cut a portion from the center of the cupcake using the cone method and once the ganache is of the right consistency, pipe the ganache into the centers.
10. To make the frosting, place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on medium high until light and fluffy.
11. Gradually add powdered sugar until incorporated. Mix in Bailey's until smooth. Add more if necessary until frosting has reached a good consistency for piping or spreading. Frost the cupcakes as desired and enjoy!

** Decorate with excess chocolate ganache