Since I’m not baking anything right now, I thought I’d share the cupcakes I made for St. Patrick’s Day. I first saw them on Smitten Kitchen and I had wanted to make them for a while, but the opportunity didn’t really present itself until St. Patrick’s Day.

The cupcakes are chocolate and Guinness. Then you cut a hole out of the middle (I used an apple corer and a tiny spoon) and put in some chocolate-whiskey ganache (yummy, even if you aren’t a whiskey person) and top it off with Baileys frosting. Yeah, it’s amazing.

They were really good, but I will warn you that the alcohol smell and flavor is definitely evident, so you may want to hold off on eating them before noon. The alcohol from the beer bakes out, but you can substitute the whiskey and/or Baileys if you want to make them a little less… car bomb-y.

Car-bomb cupcakes (makes about two dozen) Adapted from Smitten Kitchen.
Cupcakes
1 cup Guinness or other stout beer
1 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch-process, if possible)
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

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. Bring stout and butter to a simmer in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream together in another large bowl. Add beer-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using a 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, about 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.

Ganache
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter (at room temperature)
1 to 2 teaspoons Irish whiskey (you can leave this out if you don’t do alcohol)

Chop the chocolate 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, or microwave it a few seconds at a time.) Add the butter and whiskey and stir until combined.

Let the ganache cool until it is thick, but smooth enough to pipe into the cupcakes. Using an apple corer or small spoon, scoop out the middle of the cupcakes. Leave some at the bottom. Use a piping bag or a plastic bag with the corner cut off to fill the holes with the ganache.

Baileys frosting
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 substitute milk or heavy cream)

In the bowl of an electric mixer — or with a hand mixer — whip the butter at medium speed for several minutes, until it is white-ish and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar a few spoonfuls at a time. When the frosting looks thick enough to spread, drizzle in the Baileys 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.

Frost and decorate the cupcakes. I generally glop a ton of frosting on each one, spread it around and finish with a few sprinkles. The recipe doesn’t make a ton of frosting, so you should double it if you want to do something fancy and need more. Enjoy!