This Irish Car Bomb Cupcake recipe from scratch takes a popular St. Patrick’s Day drink and turn it into an amazing dessert. Rich chocolate cupcake  made with Guinness stout is filled with gooey, dark chocolate ganache, and topped with Irish cream cheese frosting. Nothing will impress your guests more this holiday!

Hello, all! It’s Chelsey from Budget Girl again with another boozy dessert!

A few years ago when Zach and I were still just dating, we attended our one and only St. Patrick’s Day party. At the time, neither of us knew anything about baking. For some reason, though, we got it in our heads that we should make a cupcake recipe. From scratch. And then bring it to the party.

Looking back, it was insane. These cupcakes were way beyond our skills. They turned out OK, though. Not great, but not bad.

It’s been six years or so since then and I have managed to not only master, but perfect this cupcake recipe.

Here’s something I tend to do–instead of reading the directions, I just start mixing the ingredients together. It’s any wonder my food is ever edible at all. With this recipe, it is incredibly important to follow every step exactly for the cake. (With the ganache and frosting, there’s more room for experimentation.)

With the cake, stout (Guinness) makes up most of the recipe’s liquid…and now I want to bake everything with beer.  It’s a lot of fun. 😛 It makes them very moist (the ganache) adds to that.

For the frosting, I had some trouble getting the recipe just right. At first, I just whipped up your everyday butter cream frosting, but added Irish cream to the mix. It came out too thick and was really sweet. I have a huge sugar tooth, so when I find something too sweet, there is definitely something wrong. So I added 8 ounces of cream cheese and wow. New favorite frosting.

The frosting and ganache can both be stored in the fridge overnight if needed. However, they will need to be left out to sit for at least an hour to soften before using.

The cupcakes are moist and delicious and you’re probably going to eat five before you even realize what you’ve done. But making a cupcake recipe from scratch is so worth it. 😛

On to the recipe!

Continue to Content

Yield: 24

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

Print

Prep Time 2 hours

Cook Time 17 minutes

Total Time 2 hours 17 minutes

Ingredients

For cupcakes:

• 1 cup Guinness (stout)
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 tsps baking soda
• 3/4 tsps salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup plain Greek yogurt

For ganache:

• 1 cup (8 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2/3 cup French vanilla coffee creamer
• 2 tbsps butter
• 1-2 tsps Irish whiskey

For frosting:

• 3 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
• 5 tbsps Irish Cream (Bailey's)

Instructions

For cupcakes

2. Preheat your oven to 350F.
3. In a medium-sized saucepan, bring 1 cup Guinness and 1 cup butter to a simmer. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Cool slightly.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
5. In a small bowl, blend the eggs and Greek yogurt together. Add the egg mixture to the chocolate mixture, whisking quickly as you go so the eggs don't cook. Pour the chocolate-egg mixture immediately into the flour mixture and blend until well-combined.
6. Divide batter among lined cupcake tins. Bake for 17-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. Cool completely. Make the ganache and the frosting while the cupcakes cool.

For ganache:

2. In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Add the coffee cream and bring to a simmer.
3. Remove from heat and immediately add the chocolate and whisk until smooth. Stir in the whiskey.
4. Put the ganache in the fridge and let it cool until it's thickened, but still soft enough for piping.
5. Once the cupcakes and ganache are both cool, use a dessert corer to remove the center of the cupcakes. (Or, with a spoon, create a 1-inch wide hole.) Only go 1/2 to 2/3 of the way down into the cupcake.
6. The ganache can be spooned into the center of the cupcakes, but it's much easier to just put it in a baggie, cut off the tip, and pipe it into the holes. Fill all the way to the top.

For frosting:

2. Whip the butter and cream cheese together in a medium-to-large bowl. Add the confectioner's sugar and blend until well-combined. Blend in the Irish cream.
3. Spread (or pipe) the frosting on top of the cupcakes.