Cupcake Bakin'!

Today I decided it was time to break in my kitchen in my new apartment and bake some cupcakes.

For a long time I've been holding onto a recipe for "Irish Car Bomb" cupcakes (Guinness cupcakes with Jamison's Whiskey ganache and Bailey's Irish Cream buttercream icing).  I'd set out to make them today, but failed to pick up two of the major ingredients - Bailey's Irish Cream and Jamison's Whiskey.

Since it was rainy and gross out and I was feeling lazy and just wanted to start baking, I decided to wing it.

I was a little hesitant to try this recipe at first because I am NOT a Guinness drinker, but I'd heard such amazing things about it that I figured I'd just go for it.

Anyhow, since I was missing the Bailey's Irish Cream, I figured I was going to just go with my standard vanilla whipped topping or a basic vanilla buttercream once I saw how heavy the Guinness flavoring was for the cake itself.  If it was too "dark" tasting, I figured a sweeter topping (the buttercream) would be the way to go.

20 minutes after I popped the batter into the oven, I tasted a little bit of heaven.  Holy cow those little cakes came out amazing.  The flavoring came out delicately rich, light, and moist.  A perfect, not overly sweet cupcake.  Since the flavoring ended up being very delicate, I decided to go with the whipped topping - I think the buttercream would have been to heavy.  Obviously this is a personal taste choice.

Once I started on the topping, I felt like for such a lovely flavored cupcake, the topping needed to have a little more flair than just simple vanilla.  I still had 3/4 of a bottle of Guinness from the cakes themselves, so I figured why not add a little and see how it tasted.  I didn't add much, but it made just enough of a difference to give it the flair I was looking for.  I also added in Bailey's - but a bit at a time - I didn't want to overwhelm it.

Being a design nerd, of course I wanted them to be pretty too, so I wanted a little something extra for the top.  I had some caramels on hand that I heated up and figured a little drizzle would be the perfect little tasty aesthetically pleasing finish.

RECIPE:

Cupcake Batter
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups baker's sugar (superfine sugar)
3/4 cup cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda1
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons shortening
3/4 cup of water
3/4 cup of Guinness Stout
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs

1. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Stir to combine. Add shortening, then use an electric mixer on medium speed to blend shortening into dry ingredients. Mix until no chunks of shortening are visible. This is your cake mix, which you can keep in a sealed container for several months until you are ready to make the cupcakes.

2. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pans. Batter will make approx. 24 to 30 cupcakes.

3. Blend dry cake mix (from step #1) with water, Guinness, oil and eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer at low speed until moistened. Increase speed to medium and beat for 2 more minutes.

4. Pour batter into lined cupcake pans and bake for 19 to 22 minutes.

5. Allow to cool for 1 hour.

Topping
2 cups heavy cream
2 tbsp powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 small pkg vanilla instant pudding mix
Guinness Stout (to taste)
Bailey's Irish Cream (to taste)

Beat heavy cream on high speed until soft peaks form. Turn speed down to low and slowly add in sugar, vanilla, pudding mix and Guinness (to taste). Turn back up to high until stiff peaks form. Keep in a chilled environment.

Print recipe here.