add the butter and whiskey (if you’re using it)...

"irish carbomb cupcakes"

date taken: march 22, 2011

photo by: me

in september 2010, i initiated a project that weds my desire to re/connect with my friends with my desire to share sugary pastries with the world. i called the project "random acts of pastries." the goal was simple: to develop and strengthen my existing friendships by sharing something small and special with my friends. i figure that giving someone i care about a batch of cookies or cupcakes i had slaved over gave me an excuse to sit down with them for a few minutes, catch up, and ideally make further plans to reconnect in the near future. and they (hopefully) get to enjoy an unexpected yummy treat. so why not just pick up the phone and call? because i have limited space on my desktop and unless i have lunch with you once a week, i'm terrible at keeping in touch. and what's wrong with just baking cookies for my closest friends, the people on "the resuri panel"? well. nothing. in fact, many of the people on the panel get a cut of whatever i'm baking anyway. the point of the exercise is to nourish the friendships that have fallen to the margins, which, for me, is the vast majority of people i actually do care about. but do i really care about them when i don't even think about them until some randomizer spits out their name to be cupcake or cookie recipients? yes, often and fondly. i just have difficulty taking the time to catch up with everyone i care about (they are large in number), and honestly, i feel embarassed for losing touch in the first place.

enter facebook, the method by which i passively observe what is going on in the lives of the people i care about. i periodically weed out the people i don't really know or care to know, and i've gotten better about not adding people i don't care for, who have likely added me out of curiosity with no genuine interest in knowing me. well, in the words of my people, "fuck that." facebook has provided me an easy system to select cupcake recipients. out of my 500+ friends, i simply select my victims at random using the number randomizer at random.org, and selecting the friends who correspond to the numbers spit out (friends are arranged by alphabetical order). once selected, a person becomes ineligible to receive pastries in the project for one year. friends who are not on guam are automatically disqualified, though i am interested in starting a random act of cookie giveaway for off-island friends.

so if i've been doing this since september, why haven't i posted about it earlier? because i've been a bad bad bear. but baby, i'm trying to change.

this month, in honor of my black irish heritage, i decided to make cupcakes inspired by my favorite insensitively-monikered alcoholic beverage: the irish carbomb. to those of you who have never had the pleasure, this drink consists of 2/3 of a pint of guinness (or other irish stout), and a shot glass filled with a half jameson (irish whiskey) and half baileys (irish cream liquer). you then drop the shot glass into the guinness and chug that sucker down. it's delicious, tastes like chocolate milk, and it fucks you the hell up if you drink two of them on your 28th birthday, five minutes apart. or so i hear.

unlike the cocktail, these cupcakes were surprisingly refined. the flavors were distinct and rich. quite possibly my favorite chocolate cupcake that i've made. ever.

theoretically the guinness in the cupcake and the whiskey in the ganache both cook off, but the baileys in the frosting does not. though the quantity is small, methinks that makes this an adult cupcake. i wouldn't serve it to my 2 year old nephew.

so here's the recipe, modified from smitten kitchen:

Chocolate Whiskey and Beer Cupcakes with Baileys Frosting

Makes 20 to 24 cupcakes

For the Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes 1 cup stout (such as Guinness) 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process) 2 cups all purpose flour 2 cups sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 3/4 teaspoon salt 2 large eggs 2/3 cup sour cream

Ganache 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate 2/3 cup heavy cream 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature 1 to 2 teaspoons Irish whiskey (optional)

Baileys Frosting (see Recipe Notes) 3 to 4 cups confections sugar 1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature 3 to 4 tablespoons Baileys (or milk, or heavy cream, or a combination thereof)

Special equipment: piping bag (though a plastic bag with the corner snipped off will also work)

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

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.

Make the ganache: Chop the chocolate (i used chocolate chips--no chopping necessary!) 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. (If this has not sufficiently melted the chocolate, you can return it to a double-boiler to gently melt what remains. 20 seconds in the microwave, watching carefully, will also work.) Add the butter and whiskey (if you’re using it) and stir until combined.

Coat the cupcakes: Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped (the fridge will speed this along but you must stir it every 10 minutes). This is where I deviated from smitten kitchen. Instead of filling the cupcake as the original recipe called for, I dipped them in the ganache, creating a pretty coat of smooth chocolate under the frosting (see photo). no doubt these would be mucho delicioso with chocolate filling, but believe me, this method was easier and prettier, and there is plenty of goodness everywhere to satisfy the most ravenous chocoholic.

Make the frosting: 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. By adding the sugar slowly, you get a smoother, less chalky taste to your frosting.

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.

Ice and decorate the cupcakes. I used a large round tip and topped this bad boy with a chocolate-covered espresso bean.

buon appetit!