St. Patrick's Day was this past Saturday and it happens to be one of my roommate's birthday. What a lucky lady - who does have some Irish. As festivities were planned for the evening, we set to work baking that afternoon. The treat of the day - Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes found at Will Cook for Friends. Simply fantastic - it was a genuine team effort with making the cake, ganache, and frosting.
We took them out to the bar and even got a neighboring group of patrons who bought at least five from us - thank you sir for confirming these are sell worthy. And I would definitely agree with these decadent little bites of bliss... Guinness Chocolate Cake, Whipped Whiskey Chocolate Ganache, and Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting.
(Thanks to Will Cook for Friends - these turned out great!)
Ingredients
For the cake:
1 cup Guinness stout, or other dark beer
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups (loosely filled, not packed) all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. sea salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
For the ganache:
8 oz. dark chocolate, chopped or in chip form (semisweet, bittersweet, use what you like)
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
2 TBSP unsalted butter, room temperature
1-2 TBSP Irish Whiskey
For the buttercream:
3 cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup Bailey's Irish Cream
(optional) 1 TBSP unflavored Gel Food Coloring, if desired
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350F and line cupcake trays with liners.
In a pot over medium heat, combine the butter and stout and bring to a simmer. Be sure when measuring the beer that you let the foam settle, to get an accurate amount of liquid. Once the pot simmers, the head from the beer will get very frothy. Add in the cocoa powder, and whisk until smooth.
Remove from the heat and set aside to cool for 5-10 minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Be sure there are no lumps of sugar or baking soda left.
In another large bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the eggs and sour cream. Beat together until blended.
Pour the (cooled) stout/butter/cocoa mixture into the eggs/sour cream. Beat to combine.
Add the dry ingredients to the bowl, and mix on low speed just until all of the dry has disappeared - do not over mix!
Evenly distribute into the lined cupcake trays. I use an ice cream scoop to help fill them evenly and without spilling - my mom taught me that!. They should be filled no more than 3/4 of the way up. Tap the tray 2-3 times atop the counter to help remove any air bubbles.
Place one batch of cupcakes on the middle rack of the oven, reduce the temperature to 325f., and bake for 12 minutes. Rotate the pan from front to back to ensure even baking, then bake for another 10-12 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
In a small pot (or microwave), warm the cream over medium heat until just simmering. Pour over the chocolate, wait momentarily and stir, starting from the middle and working out, until all of the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth.
Add the butter and stir until melted. Stir in the Irish whiskey, and place in refrigerator to begin to chill. I like to make my ganache (if it's for a filling) fluffy - and this is how you do it: Cool the ganache until cool, but not hard. Now whip the chocolate mixture as if you were whipping cream. Since the mixture is half cream, it will whip and become fluffy. Quick tip - the more cream to chocolate ratio, the lighter and fluffier you can get your ganache.
To actually fill the cupcakes, I used my Fun Gun (pastry decorator), but you can also use any type of narrow tube pastry tip/filler. Then literally inject the cupcakes with ganache. And if you have extra - it can be stored in the fridge.
Butter CreamWith a stand or hand mixer, beat the butter for 2-3 minutes or until light, fluffy, and pale. Turn the mixer off, add 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar, and beat until smooth. Repeat until all the sugar is added - this will help to reduce the amount of powdered sugar flung about your kitchen.
Once all of the sugar is added, pour in the Bailey's and mix to combine. If the frosting is too thick, add another tsp. of liquor (or milk or cream) to thin it out. If it's too thin, add more powdered sugar until the desired consistency is reached.
If you're using food coloring, add it now and blend thoroughly.
Pipe and decorate as desired - I used a star shaped tip from my Fun Gun. It is really amazing how many times I've used my pastry decorator - a lot!
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| Perfection. |