Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

In honor of St. Patrick's day, I decided to make some cupcakes. The green and white grocery store cupcakes just were NOT looking appealing to me, and I figured I could make something a bit more authentic. I browsed through my bookmarked recipes and found one that really stood out.

The recipe I found was from The Cupcakery. Her recipe was for Chocolate Guinness Stout Cupcakes With Chocolate Ganache and Bailey's Buttercream Swirl. Her recipe looked pretty good as it was, so I only made minor changes. I figured that we already had the beginnings of a good Irish Car Bomb with the Guinness and the Bailey's, so why not take it all the way? I decided to add the third ingredient.

Here is the original recipe, with my changes in green!

Chocolate Guinness Stout Cupcake
(I halved this part of the recipe, and still came out with 27 cupcakes.)

2 cups Guinness Extra Stout
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
4 cups all purpose flour
4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 large eggs
1 1/3 cups sour cream
1 pkg. Hershey's mini-morsel semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350° degrees. Line baking cups with paper liners and set aside.
2. Bring 2 cups stout and 2 cups butter to simmer in large saucepan over medium heat. Do not boil.
3. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
(Once the cocoa powder is added, your mixture should look steamy like this.)
4. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in large bowl to blend.
5. Using an electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend.
6. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine.
7. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed.
8. Using a rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Gently fold in mini-morsel semi-sweet chocolate chips.
(Mixture will appear robust and lumpy.)
9. Divide batter among paper liners and bake 17 - 22 minutes. Cupcakes are done when tester inserted into center of cakes comes out clean. Let cool for about 10 minutes on a wire rack.
10. VERY IMPORTANT: Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting!


Chocolate Ganache
(I also halved this portion of the recipe, and still had some ganache left over.)

12 ounce pakage Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips (or milk chocolate)
1/2 cup heavy cream (I used Jameson's Irish Whiskey instead of cream.)

1. Combine both ingredients in a double boiler.
2. Continue to mix thoroughly over boiling water until ingredients are smooth and chocolate is completely melted.
3. Layer this ganache on completely cooled cupcakes and allow to harden.


Bailey's Buttercream Swirl
(I doubled this part of the recipe.)

4 oz. (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. whole milk
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 (2 1/2 Tbsp. Bailey's Irish Cream)

1. With an electric mixer, cream the butter and salt for about 30 seconds.
2. Add half of the powdered sugar and the milk to the butter and beat again until combined. Scrape down the bowl.
3. Add the remainder of the powdered sugar, vanilla, and lemon juice. Beat until combined. Scrape down the bowl again.
4. Add Bailey's Irish Cream and beat on high speed for 5-6 minutes or until the frosting is fluffy.
5. It is preferable to use the frosting on the same day you make it, but it can keep in the refrigerator for 3 days if tightly wrapped. Make sure and stir the buttercream well before using to get the air bubbles out of the frosting and then pipe onto completely cooled cupcakes.


I just took the recipe from my Google Reader, so I didn't have her pictures to use as reference. Mine came out decorated a little different, and I love it that way! :) I had some green fondant on hand, so I rolled it out and used some mini cookie cutters to cut out the shapes.