Chocolate Whiskey and Beer Cupcakes
From Smitten Kitchen
While the Guinness in the cake gets mostly baked out, the Baileys is fresh and potent, so if you’re making this for people who don’t drink, you’ll probably want to swap it with milk. The Baileys frosting recipe makes a smallish amount - enough to just cover the cupcakes. Because the cupcakes are so rich and the frosting is so sweet, only a small amount is needed. Double if you want a more towering effect.
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Ingredients
- For the Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes:
- 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
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs
- 2/3 cup sour cream
- Ganache Filling (Updated to double it, based on many comments):
- 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
- 2/3 cup heavy cream
- 2 T butter, room temperature
- 1-2 tsp Irish Whiskey (optional)
- Baileys Frosting:
- 3-4 cups confectioner’s sugar
- 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3-4 T Baileys (or milk, or heavy cream, or a combination)
Preparation
Step 1
To make the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 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. Cool slightly.
Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and ¾ tsp 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 ¾ 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. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.
To make the filling: 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 or heat for 20 seconds in the microwave, watching carefully. Add the butter and whiskey (if using) and stir until combined.
To fill the cupcakes: Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped (the fridge will speed this along but it will have to be stirred every 10 minutes). Meanwhile, using a 1” 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 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.
To make 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. If the sugar is added slowly, butter cream frostings get less grainy, and tend 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. The person who submitted the recipe used a star tip and made little “poofs” everywhere and sprinkled it with various colors of sanding sugar to keep it looking festive for New Years. Shaved dark and white chocolates would look very pretty as well.
The cupcakes can be baked and filled in advance and frozen. After they are frosted, they will only keep in the refrigerator for a day or so.