These little gems were commissioned by Samer, who threw out a tweet one day linking to Smitten Kitchen‘s post on them and asking someone to make them for him. Obviously, I obliged and we traded — wine for cupcakes over CupCake Happy Hour (or CCHH, our invention) at Faccia Luna. I should have made photographer Samer take real pictures of these guys but alas, you’ll have to settle for my take on the artistic.
Anyway, that’s probably not why you are here. You want to know how these puppies were made. Well I can tell you that I could not follow Smitten Kitchen’s recipe exactly, I mean I can never follow any recipe exactly so I don’t know why I am surprised. For the cake I cut the sugar a bit and subbed out yogurt for the sour cream. The ganache filing was not what I expected, it hardened up WAY too much. I was looking for something creamier — so look for an update when I perfect that portion of this project. I am thinking a cream-based filing rather than a chocolate one. And the only change I made to the frosting was MORE BOOZE. So here is my version of Smitten Kitchen’s Chocolate Whiskey Cupcakes…
Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes:
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s recipe found here.
INGREDIENTS
Chocolate Guinness Cake
~1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
~1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
~3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
~2 cups all purpose flour
~1 3/4 cups sugar
~1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
~3/4 teaspoon salt
~2 large eggs
~2/3 cup Greek yogurt
Ganache Filling
~8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
~2/3 cup heavy cream
~2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
~1/4 cup Irish whiskey (I used Jameson)
Frosting
~2 to 4 cups confections sugar
~1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
~1/4 cup (more or less to taste) Baileys Irish Cream
DIRECTIONS
Cake
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. 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 and let cool.
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 low speed. Stop and by hand, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until wooden stick inserted into center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.
Ganache
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. Add the butter and whiskey and stir until combined.
Fill the cupcakes
Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be squeezed (the fridge will move this process along but you must stir it every 10 minutes to avoid over hardening). Meanwhile, using a 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. Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top. Eat the plugs dipped in left over ganache.
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.
[A fantastic trick Smitten Kitchen learned from Martha Stewart test kitchen chefs is to add 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, add in the Baileys and whip it until combined. If this has made the frosting too thin beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.
Ice and decorate the cupcakes. I used a large star tip swirled for a bakery look.
Makes approximately 24 cupcakes
When I first heard the name Irish Carbomb Cupcakes, I thought “nah, it must be a coincidence!”
But then I see this, and I read it, and it’s TRUE! You’ve turned the best beverage into a dessert!!!
I wish I’d have been at that CCHH – I would’ve had quite a few irish carbombs and irish carcakes. This is fantastic.
I like this part of the recipe best: “Eat the plugs dipped in left over ganache.”
Well that is just for quality control!