Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

As you can tell from the picture above… these should probably be called Irish-American Car Bomb Cupcakes.  This past Monday was JP’s 21st birthday!  He has one sole passion in life: John Deere.  While JP knew he was getting cupcakes brought to his Ultimate Frisbee game on Sunday, Sam bought some cupcake toppers to surprise him with.  As opposed to when I made the Irish Car Bomb Cake, I used a mixture of cake and all-purpose flour, which actually seemed to make the cupcakes a little fluffier (the cake was very dense).  Everyone on the team loved the cupcakes and it was (hopefully) a little bit of a morale booster after their close, and sad, loss to Purdue’s team.

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes
Adapted from Une-Deux Senses

For the Guinness chocolate cupcakes:
  • 1 cup stout beer/ Guinness
  • 2 sticks unsalted butter
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 3/4 tsp. salt
  • 2 large eggs (make sure they're at room temperature)
  • 2/3 cup sour cream


For the Bailey's ganache filling:
  • 8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
  • 2/3 cup heavy cream
  • 2 tbsn. butter, room temperature
  • 2 tsp. Bailey's Irish cream


For the Bailey's buttercream frosting:
  • 8 tbsn. unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 3-4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
  • 4 - 8 tbsn. Bailey's Irish cream (I used just a little more than this)

 Directions:
  1. To make the cupcakes, preheat oven to 350 F. Line a cupcake tin with liners and set aside.
  2. Combine stout and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the cocoa and whisk until smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
  3. In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
  4. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat together the eggs and sour cream to blend.
  5. Add stout mixture and beat to combine. Mix in dry ingredients on low until incorporated.
  6. Divide batter among cupcake liner about 2/3 full and bake until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Cool completely.
  7. To make the ganache, place chocolate in heatproof bowl.
  8. Heat cream in saucepan until simmering, then pour over chocolate, let sit for 1 minute, then stir until smooth.
  9. Add butter and Bailey's and stir until combined. Set aside until cool and thick enough to be piped (you can use the refrigerator to speed the process but stir every 10 minutes to ensure even cooling). Meanwhile, cut a portion from the center of the cupcake using the cone method and once the ganache is of the right consistency, pipe the ganache into the centers.
  10. To make the frosting, place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on medium high until light and fluffy.
  11. Gradually add powdered sugar until incorporated. Mix in Bailey's until smooth. Add more if necessary until frosting has reached a good consistency for piping or spreading. Frost the cupcakes as desired and enjoy!


** Decorate with excess chocolate ganache

13 comments:

Sook said...

Aw way cute! Love the hats on the cupcakes.

TasteStopping said...

Any recipe with this much Bailey's in it is a keeper in my book. Love the John Deere decorations. I'm sure that these treats were the perfect pick-me-up from the loss. Besides, eat enough of them, and you might even forget you played at all! :D

Best,
Casey

Anonymous said...

I know you're probably American and didn't put any thought into what you were typing, but calling a cake "Irish Car Bomb" is about as classy as calling a loaded muffin "The 911 Attack."

I lost a cousin in England to Irish terrorist activities. You need to think before you give such tasteless and inappropriate names to things.

Katherine Martin said...

Anyymous - I am actually of Irish descent & lived in Europe when I was younger (I'm very Irish, in fact) and the pun behind the cupcakes is that it is a popular drink in the US and the person who they were baked for was turning 21. But - I am sorry I offended you.

Sarah Caron said...

Oooh! Ooooh! I LOVE Irish Car Bombs! And to make it into a cupcake is genius! Bookmarking the recipe for the next time my girlfriends and I get together.

And Anonymous, so sorry to hear about your cousin. That's awful. However, this is a legit name of an American bar drink and it's hardly the only cocktail/shot with an offensive title. The French Revolution, Hiroshima, the London Blitz ... they're all terrible events that happen to also be cocktails. Take issue with the bartending industry for allowing names like this to be popularized.

Elise said...

the ganache filling is supposed to be whiskey ganache. as a car bomb is Guinness with a baileys and irish whiskey shot dropped into it just a note from a bartender :) i have made these before, very time consuming lol... but any way you slice it im sure yours were yummy!

this is where i fist found the recipe and she had the same issue with people getting offended by the name (again its the bar industry not the baking industry that named this)

http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/01/car-bomb-cupcakes/

Katherine Martin said...

Elise - The recipe does usually call for Whiskey, but I didn't have any of hand do I substituted Bailey's for Whiskey.

Anonymous said...

Well, I'm American and I've never heard of this drink but if you say so . . . .

I still don't like the name.

P.S. I'm not the original anonymous but I'd give my name if anonymous wasn't the only option.

Unknown said...

Ameriiicccaaaaaa

Katherine Martin said...

Thank you, JP, for being " 'Merican "

grace said...

miniature john deere hats!?! i must have them! where on earth did you find such an adorable creation?
meanwhile, the cupcakes themselves are completely outstanding. nicely done. :)

Samantha said...

I found the hats on Amazon but you can also buy them through
http://thepartyworks.com/john-deere-c-758_17_275.html

I mean, come on...every 21 year old boy needs John Deere party hats and cupcake toppers, right?

Unknown said...

WOW. irish car bombs are one of my favorite drinks, so i made these last night for st.pattys day. they are unbelievable. i used 1 c. cake flour and 1 c. allpurpose and the consistency was perfect. i also used whiskey in the ganache. this is so reminiscent of an irish car bomb yet so sugary and delicious.

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin