How2Coupon: Recipe: Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes!

I'm reposting this recipe with St. Patrick's Day coming up! These cupcakes may just change your life. No, seriously. If you're looking for a fun dessert for St. Paddy's Day, you have to make these amazing cupcakes. A dare you to stop at one!

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

{recipe courtesy of Beantown Baker}

Ingredients:

{Cupcakes}
1 cup Guinness
1 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

{Ganache Filling}

8 oz. bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 Tbsp. butter, room temperature
1 to 2 tsp. Irish whiskey (optional)

{Bailey's Frosting}
3 to 4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperatue
3 to 4 Tbsps Bailey's (or milk, or heavy cream, or a combination)

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring 1 cup Guinness and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

2) 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. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.

3) 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. Add the butter and whiskey and stir until combined.

4) Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped. Meanwhile, using your 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer {I actually used a melon-baller}, 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”. Put the ganache into a piping bag (I just use sandwich bags and cut a corner off) with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.

5) 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.

6) 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.

Top with some gold sprinkles and enjoy!