American Suburbanite Bakes: Irish Car-bomb Cupcakes

Before going to Cheltenham and St. Patrick's Day, inspired by all things Irish, I made Irish Car-Bomb Cupcakes. I had seen them posted on Pinterest (over and over again). When I couldn't resist the temptation any longer, my husband welcomed the request to buy some Guinness! From opening the can to baking and eating, my husband helped me make the cupcakes. He took charge of the whiskey ganache and was chief taste tester as we went along.

The recipe is based on the Brown Eyed Bakers blog.

http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2011/03/14/irish-car-bomb-cupcakes/

It was worth following her recipe, but I did tweak a few things as I went along. First, I cut the recipe in half because my husband and I could easily eat all 24 cupcakes if I made them. Not exactly the way to keep our healthy living/weight loss plans for the year! I have to say, the frosting was some of the best I have ever made and has created a bit of a Baileys habit. Glad I only made half the recipe or I would be eating it on everything!



Recipe for 12 cupcakes:

Cupcakes-
1/2 cup Guinness
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 + 1/8 cup cocoa powder (I used Bourneville)
1 cup all-purpose (plain) flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/3 cup sour cream

For the whiskey ganache-
4 oz dark/ bittersweet chocolate **
1/3 cup heavy (double) cream
1 TBS butter (at room temperature)
1 tsp Irish Whiskey

For the Baileys Buttercream Frosting-
1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 cup powdered (icing) sugar
3 TBS Baileys Irish Cream

** We used an 80% cocoa chocolate bar. We found it was too much cocoa to combine and had to add powdered sugar until it came together.

CUPCAKES

-Preheat oven to 350 F
-Place cupcake liners in cupcake tin
-In saucepan, bring Guinness and butter to a simmer
-Remove mixture from heat and add cocoa powder, whisking until smooth
-Cool slightly

-In a large bowl, beat eggs and sour cream on medium speed until combined
-Add the cooled Guinness and chocolate mixture and beat until combined

-In another bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt
-Add dry ingredients into wet ingredients
-Beat briefly on low speed
-Combine completely with a rubber spatula
-Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full

Bake about 16 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.

WHISKEY GANACHE

-Break up chocolate into small pieces and place in heatproof bowel
-In small pan, bring cream to a simmer
-Pour hot cream over chocolate
-Let sit for 1 minute
-With a rubber spatula, fold chocolate into cream until smooth
-Let cool, it should be the consistency of toothpaste, thick but still able to be piped

(after 20 minutes or so, this is where I added some powdered sugar as the 80% cocoa bar was too chocolatey to combine!)

FILL THE CUPCAKES

-Using your tool of choice, cut out a pocket in the centers of the cupcakes going about 2/3 down. (I used a small melon baller, the other recipes use a cookie cutter or the bottom of a large piping tip)
-Fill the wholes in the cupcakes with the ganache. I used a small spoon. You can pipe it in. If you don't have a piping bag, you can use a ziplock bag and snip off the corner.

BALEYS BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

-Mix the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, scraping the sides occasionally
-Reduce mixer speed to medium-low/low and gradually add icing sugar until it is combined thoroughly
-Add the Baileys and mix again on medium-high speed for 2-3 minutes, until light and fluffy

FROST THE CUPCAKES

-Using you favorite technique frost the cupcakes and enjoy!

Sweet Treats (or maybe not): Buffalo Chicken Cupcakes

To those who know me well, it is no surprise I wanted to try Buffalo Chicken cupcakes. I absolutely love buffalo flavored anything - wings, shrimp, on a salad, a sandwich, in chili, ANYTHING! Every time I go back to the States, there are 2 things I order: buffalo shrimp from Frenchy's restaurant in Clearwater, FL and Louisiana Lickers chicken wings from Quaker Steak and Lube wherever I can find one.

About a year ago, I made barbecue chicken muffins and they were quite tasty. I simply seared some bite sized pieces of chicken until it was almost cooked and coated it in barbecue sauce. I filled mini muffin tins with corn bread batter (use your favorite mix or make it from scratch) and set some chicken on top. Placed it in the oven for about 15 minutes, enough time to bake the corn bread and finish cooking the chicken, and ate them. They were great, and I had started coming up with ideas to up the wow factor on them (think I have been watching too many cupcake wars lol).

So, when I saw a recipe on the blog "cupcakes take the cake" for buffalo chicken cupcakes I was very excited. This was just before the Super Bowl and after a month of anticipation I finally got to the business of making buffalo chicken cupcakes...and they were awful. I even wasted the last 1/2 cup of my 'American import specialty food item' Frank's Red Hot Sauce.

I was not expecting a sweet cupcake taste, the post said it would be like corn bread. I like corn bread and I had given my own go at the savory cupcake, I thought I knew what to expect. You know that moment when you have a flavor expectation in your head and you take a bite and the actual flavor and the flavor expectation are complete opposites? All I can say is I was glad I was at home and I did not have to be polite. I actually took a second bite in hopes it was not as bad as my first reaction, but I was wrong. I even had my husband taste it afterwards and he affirmed my conclusions with his response, "No offense honey, but they are awful".

Oh well, they can't all be treats! I guess this one was more of a trick. We will be chucking these out the kitchen window to see who can get more on the roof of the outhouses. Maybe the birds will enjoy them more than we did!

More about the buffalo chicken cupcake from: http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2012/01/buffalo-chicken-super-bowl-cupcakes.html#ixzz1lPv8YD69

Sweet treats: black bottomed cupcakes

I never need an excuse to eat chocolate, but what better reason than Valentine's Day? My mother was recently telling me about cupcakes she made, she got the recipe after a patient brought them in for my brothers office, and I guess he wanted them again. Wait, my Mom made cake from a recipe? Cakes made at home have always been from a box, wow retirement is agreeing with my Mom! When I overheard my nearly 3 year old nephew asking for a cupcake for breakfast, I thought it would be worth a try.

The cream cheese topping is divine, and the chocolate cake is moist and delicious. I may even make a few of these without the topping for a friend of mine with a lactose intolerance.

Recipe:

Topping

8oz cream cheese, softened
1/8 tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar (I used icing sugar)
1 egg beaten
6oz chocolate chips (I used Cadbury buttons)

Cream together cream cheese, sugar, and salt until well blended
Add egg and beat well
Stir in chips/buttons and set aside

Cake
2-1/4 cups flour
6 TBS cocoa
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 tsp vanilla
1-1/2 cups water
1/2 cup oil
1-1/2 tsp white vinegar

Sift dry ingredients
Add water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla and mix well

(mommy's version- cream sugar with wet ingredients, then add flour...)

Fill cupcake liner 3/4 full with chocolate batter, then top with cheese mixture. (Mine overflowed a bit, but my liners were much taller than my cupcake tin, I would do half way with the chocolate cake then a bit of the topping)

Bake at 350degrees for 20 minutes.

Well it's Saturday and the cupcakes are gone, so they must have been good!