Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

For the Guinness Stout Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners. Set aside.

In a medium sized bowl whisk together the cocoa powder, sugar, flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, on low speed, combine the stout beer, melted butter and vanilla. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until mixed in. Add the sour cream and mix until smooth (if the butter hardens a little, the batter may not be perfectly smooth, that’s okay). Slowly add in the flour mixture. Mix until combined.

Using an ice cream scoop, fill each lined muffin tin about 3/4 full.
Bake for 24-26 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Then remove them from the oven and allow cupcakes to cool completely.

To fill the cupcakes, use a small paring knife to cut a cone shape out of the top of each cupcake, cutting the cone about 2/3 of the way down through the cupcake.

Using a frosting bag and tip, pipe the ganache into each cupcake. Then frost each cupcake with cream cheese frosting.

For the Whiskey Chocolate Ganache filling:

Put the chopped chocolate into a heatproof bowl.

In a small pot, heat the cream over medium heat until simmering, stirring occasionally.

Pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Let it sit a few minutes to soften the chocolate. Stir until smooth. Add butter and whiskey. Stir to combine. Let the ganache sit at room temperature until thick enough to spoon or pipe into the cupcakes. To speed up the process, put the ganache in the fridge, stirring often, until thickened.

For the Baileys Irish Cream frosting:

In the bowl of an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the butter. Beat on medium speed until combined, about 1 minute. Mix in the Baileys Irish Cream. With the mixer on low, slowly add in the salt and powdered sugar. Beat on medium speed until the mixture is smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Cupcake recipe adapted from the FoodNetwork. Whiskey Chocolate Ganache recipe from smitten kitchen. Bailey’s Irish Cream Cream Cheese Frosting adapted from Joy the Baker.