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| Photo credit: Violet Martin |
I'll start off with my hesitation for naming these cupcakes. Technically, they have a name. They are called Irish Car Bomb cupcakes, named after the horribly un-PC drink which entails a half pint of Guinness with a shot of 50% Baileys and 50% whiskey dropped into the pint glass and chugged before the Baileys curdles. For the record: I did not name or create this drink. I haven't even tried it, to be honest. All I know is it's a St. Patrick's day specialty and not actually an Irish creation. And that the food blogger who's recipe post I took this from got quite a lot of comment section grief because of the name. I, for one, am not looking for that attention, but would merely like that you enjoy these delicious cupcakes.
Before I forget- I took this recipe from Deb at Smitten Kitchen. Clearly she is brilliant, because when I searched for alternative recipes, they all cited hers
http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/01/car-bomb-cupcakes/
Let me break down the cupcakes, because they are rather elaborate:
- Guinness-chocolate cake
- Chocolate-whiskey ganache
- Baileys frosting
I promise they are worth the effort and ingredients. We just won't discuss the amount of butter used. There is a distinct Guinness flavor to the cupcakes, but it's not overpowering. The ganache itself is not too whiskey-esque, but the Baileys frosting is, well, Baileys. These are time and ingredient-consuming, but according to my lovely friends totally worth it.
Here is the ingredients list:
Cupcakes
1 cup Guinness (I almost used a different stout, but stuck with the authentic choice)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I reused my Trader Joe's cocoa powder and still highly recommend it)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoons salt (sea salt in my case, because it's always around)
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream*
*I didn't feel like buying sour cream, so I used 2/3 cup Greek non-fat yogurt and about 1/3 teaspoon baking soda
Ganache- These are Deb's instructions. I might halve it, however.
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate (I went with the nice Fair Trade 72% Cacao from Trader Joe's)
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter at room temp.
1-2 teaspoons Irish Whiskey (I used R & R; you can't taste it very much, it just adds a nice richness)
Baileys Frosting
3-4 cups confections sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temp
3-4 tablespoons of Baileys
Oven Settings: Preheat 350°F
Makes 20-24 Cupcakes, use liners
Cupcake Directions:
Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 17 minutes. I baked mine 1 extra minute so the center was more firm when I went to cut it out. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.
Ganache Directions:
Chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth. (If this has not sufficiently melted the chocolate, you can return it to a double-boiler to gently melt what remains. 20 seconds in the microwave, watching carefully, will also work.) Add the butter and whiskey (if you’re using it) and stir until combined.
Filling the cupcakes:
Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped (the fridge will speed this along but you must stir it every 10 minutes). I found that the refrigerator was necessary to get the ganache solid-ish at all. Meanwhile, using your 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer, cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. You want to go most of the way down the cupcake but not cut through the bottom — aim for 2/3 of the way. A slim spoon or grapefruit knife will help you get the center out. Those are your “tasters”. I just cut circles with the tip of a sharp knife and scooped out the top. It's not a fancy trick; it just took some practice. I'd call it an A for effort skill, since people won't be able to see how horribly you cut a hole in the cupcake. Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.
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| Ganache-filling Time Photo Credit: Violet Martin |
*Ziploc bag story: I thought I'd be clever and make a piping bag out of a ziploc bag. I dumped in the ganche in the bag, sealed the top and cut a small triangle off the tip of the bag. It was going great...until three huge globs of ganache went plop on my shirt, sock and floor. Fortunately I'd made more ganache filling than I needed to fill my cupcakes, so the crisis was averted, aside from a chocolate-y baker and floor.
Making the Frosting:
Whip the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, for several minutes. You want to get it very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time.
Deb's hint: This is a fantastic trick I picked up while working on the cupcakes article for Martha Stewart Living; the test kitchen chefs had found that when they added the sugar slowly, quick buttercream frostings got less grainy, and tended to require less sugar to thicken them up.
When the frosting looks thick enough to spread, drizzle in the Baileys (or milk) and whip it until combined. If this has made the frosting too thin (it shouldn’t, but just in case) beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.
Ice and decorate the cupcakes. I have developed a strange way of icing cupcakes; I swirl the tip of a whisk into the frosting and then swirl it in the other direction on the cupcakes, releasing the frosting as a peaked blob. It looked prettier that smashing on the frosting with a knife.
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| Frosting Method Photo Credit: Violet Martin |
Do ahead:
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| Finished product! Photo credit: Violet Martin |
