Chocolate Cupcakes with Guiness, Whiskey, & Irish Cream

This ideal St. Patty's day recipe is all over the internet, but I think the original recipe that's been circulating can be improved in a few ways. First, it needs more whiskey than called for in the ganache for the taste to show up, and it's also easier to handle and eat the cupcakes if the ganache is a bit more firm than in the original. Second, the method of making the frosting by adding irish cream liquor into a regular frosting base ends up with a frosting that is not firm enough, doesn't taste that much like bailey's, and is super sweet. I improvised a solution to this by stirring the flavoring ingredients for irish cream liquor into the frosting rather than the liquor itself. i've made these two years in a row now, the first time with the original and the second with the recipe below, and the updated version was waaay better.




Chocolate Cupcakes with Guiness, Whiskey, & Irish Cream
original recipe from www.smittenkitchen.com

1 cup Guinness
1 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups AP flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

8 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1+ tbs whiskey

2 cups home-made or store-bought plain buttercream frosting
2+ tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
2+ tbs whiskey
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat to 350°. Line 24 cupcake cups.

Melt the butter together with the Guinness. Whisk in the cocoa powder to make a smooth goo.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a big mixing bowl. Beat together the eggs and sour cream, then beat in the beer-chocolate mixture. Add flour mixture and fold in until homogenous. Divide among the cupcake tins, being careful not to fill more than 3/4 of the way. Back 15+ minutes until a fork comes out clean and cool on a rack.

To make the ganache, heat up the cream on the stove but don't let it boil, then pour it over the chocolate shards and the butter. Let it sit for a minute to melt, then stir it until smooth. Stir in the whiskey to taste.

Once the cupcakes are moderately cool, scoop little holes in each of them and fill them up with ganache. we ended up with extra ganache, which we ate in a bowl with the cupcake innards. refrigerate the cupcakes while you work on the frosting to set the ganache.

For the frosting, just add the cocoa, whiskey, and vanilla to the frosting to taste. resist the temptation to frost before the ganache is set - it will inevitably get mixed up with the frosting (this mistake is visible in the photo of my cupcakes above).

Enjoy!