Boozy Irish Cupcakes

Last week, at my regular knitting meetup, we were discussing blogs, which brought me to the realization that since before the arrival and departure of my parents back in May, I have been neglecting my blog. I don’t know if it was because I didn’t have much to say, or if I was to busy with all of my current projects, but I have decided that it’s time for my neglectful behavior to stop. As the girls and I were discussing our blogs and our recent activity, they gave me a brilliant idea. Every week, I spend hours in my kitchen baking delicious treats for my fellow knitters (and regular pub-goers), why not write a post about what I am baking each week! So this is the first one…it doesn’t have a name yet (so if you have any suggestions I’d be delighted to hear them!) but here goes…

This week we are down a pregnant knitter, as she’s gone away on holiday…So I decided drunken cupcakes were the way to go. After a brief Google search for “Amazing Cupcakes” I came across a blog that caught my attention…The post was from BrownEyedBaker, and it was titled “Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes”. Now I realize that the name is offensive to all of my lovely Irish friends, so I apologize, and will refer to them as Boozy Irish cupcakes from this point on. But back to the point...when I read the post I was delighted! They sounded FANTASTIC! Since I already had a recipe in my repertoire for Guinness cupcakes, I was well on my way to a deliciously moist and boozy cupcake. For those of you who are unaware of this cocktail, it is typically a shot of Irish whiskey, floating on top of a shot of Irish Cream, then dropped into a pint of Guinness. Once the two shots are dropped into the Guinness, the drink must be consumed as quickly as possible as it will curdle. If you are able to consume the drink quickly enough, it’s supposed to be delicious and creamy.

I started with my basic Guinness cupcake recipe, but because there is quite a bit of alcohol in these cupcakes, I decided to go with mini cupcakes.

After the cupcakes were done and cooled, I prepared the Jameson Ganache...

While the ganache was cooling, I cut small holes in the center of each cupcake, once I had finished doing this to 80 mini cupcakes, the ganache was cool enough to put into a piping bag! I filled each of the dark cake caves with thick drunken chocolate ganache.

When each cupcake was infused with the chocolatey ganache, it was time to prepare the Bailey’s Buttercream!








I piped the Bailey’s Buttercream over each cupcake, covering the dark pools of chocolate whiskey goodness. Of course I don’t have the best piping skills, so they aren’t the prettiest cupcakes, but they taste amazing!




Now onto the recipe!

Guinness Cupcakes:

• 250 ml Guinness 
• 250 g butter
• 75 g cocoa powder
• 400 g caster sugar
• 142 ml sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp vanilla 
• 275 g plain flour
• 2 1/2 tsp baking soda

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C & line cupcake tin with paper baking cases.
2. Pour Guinness into a large wide sauce pan, add butter and heat over medium-low heat until melted. Whisk in cocoa powder & caster sugar. 
3. Beat sour cream with eggs and vanilla. Temper the egg mixture by adding about 1/2 cup of the hot Guinness mixture into the egg mixture, stirring constantly. Pour tempered egg mixture into the pan. 
4. Whisk in flour and baking soda.
5. Pour batter into cupcake tin and bake for 15-17 minutes, or until wooden cocktail stick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Jameson Chocolate Ganache:

• 200 g bittersweet chocolate
• 160 ml double cream
• 30 g butter, at room temperature
• 10 ml Jameson Irish Whiskey

Method:

1. Finely chop chocolate and transfer to a heatproof bowl. Heat cream until simmering and pour over chocolate. Let sit for one minute and stir from center outward until smooth.
2. Add butter and whiskey, stir until combined. Let ganache cool until think, but soft enough to be piped.

Bailey's Buttercream:

• 460 g butter, at room temperature
• 500 g icing sugar
• 90 ml Bailey's Irish Cream

Method:

1. Using an electric mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for about 5 minutes, scraping down the bowl. 
2. Reduce speed to medium-low and gradually add the icing sugar until all of it is incorporated. 
3. Add Bailey's Irish Cream and increase speed to medium-high, whip for another 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy.

Alternately, if you would like to prepare basic Guinness cupcakes, it is simply divine when topped with cream cheese icing, here's the recipe for it:

Cream Cheese Icing:

• 300 g cream cheese, at room temperature
• 150 g icing sugar
• 125 ml double cream

Method:

1. Whip cream cheese until smooth, sieve over icing sugar and beat together until combined.
2. Add cream and beat again until icing is a spreadable consistency.