Pin Under Review: Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

I am starting with this one because it was requested and sometimes mommy needs a cupcake that she doesn’t have to share with the kiddos.

 These cupcakes promise to be easy to make, delicious and taste like an Irish Car Bomb.

 For those who live under a rock an Irish Car Bomb is a beer cocktail made with Guinness Irish stout, Bailey’s Irish Cream, and Jameson Irish whiskey. To make the drink, whiskey is poured on top of the Bailey’s in a shot glass, and the shot glass dropped into the glass of Guinness. Once the shot glass hits the bottom, you have to “drink quickly” or the cream will curdle. I can’t vouch for what goes on once it is inside your stomach, but I have always found it smart to limit the number of Irish Car Bombs to just one, however the cupcakes are delicious and there is no curdling involved.

 I made these for my cousins college graduation party and they were almost gone before dinner was even served. People loved them. I should tell you that they are more expensive to make than the average cupcake. They require several alcoholic products and some pricier than normal chocolate.

 In reviewing the Pins, I found that while some recipes were dry and others were way too dense, most of them did not taste like Irish Car Bombs, so in the end I ended up combining two and still making some alterations to make Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Jameson Chocolate Ganache Filling and Bailey’s Irish Butter Cream Icing.

 What you will need:
 

For the Cupcakes:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• ½ teaspoon salt

• ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

• 1½ sticks butter, room temperature

• 1¼ cups white granulated sugar

• 4 large eggs

• 16-20 ounce Guinness stout

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Jameson Ganache:

• 8 ounces (2 large bars) bittersweet chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)

• 2/3 cup heavy cream

• 2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

• 1/4 cup Jameson Irish whiskey

For the Bailey's Irish Butter Cream

• 2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature

• 5 cups powdered sugar

• 3/4 cup Bailey's Irish Cream

Cupcakes:

To make the cupcakes, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. (I will now refer to this mixture as the “powder”). In a separate large bowl and a mixer, mix together the butter and sugar until light and airy. Beat the eggs, one at a time to the mixture and then add the vanilla extract. Make sure it is all mixed well.Start mixing in the powder mixture you made and alternate adding the Guinness. (ex. Add some powder and mix, add some Guinness and mix, add some powder and mix, add some Guinness and mix, etc) until all of the Guinness and powder are mixed in.

WARNING: The powder mixture is very light. If your mixer is set too high when you add the powder it will fill the room and not the bowl.

**My recipe says 16-20 ounces of Guinness. The original called for only 12 ounces. So I started with 12 I couldn’t taste anything other than bitter chocolate. So I continued to add until I could taste a hint of Guinness. I would not add more than 20 ounces because it will change the consistency of the cupcake.
Scrape down the sides and bottoms of the mixing bowl, and fill your cupcake tins (should be lined with cupcake liners) about half way. Then bake in oven for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

**Let the cupcakes cool before trying to cut into them or ice them, but cut the cupcakes BEFORE you make the ganache filling (you will see why).

Once the cupcakes are cool, you need to cut a hole in the center, but not all the way through to the bottom. I used a really small paring knife and it came right out.


 Ganache:

Now you are ready to make the Jameson Ganache. Make sure that you use bittersweet chocolate that it is at least 70% cocoa or it doesn’t taste the same. The recipe called for the bittersweet chocolate to be grated into the bowl, but I broke them up and placed them in the chopper, which was much easier.

Once the chocolate is chopped, place the chocolate and butter in a bowl. In a sauce pan or microwaveable cup bring the cream to boil. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and butter. Leave untouched for 2 minutes. Stir until thick and glossy. Add the Jameson. The original recipe called for a few tablespoons of Jameson, but I continued to add and taste until it was a strongly alcoholic chocolate. When you eat the cupcake, this is the part where you actually taste the liquor. This was the best part. People would have eaten the chocolate ganache alone.

**My secret and the reason we cut the cupcakes before we made the ganache is this. The ganache you just made should be really watery (and that is okay, it will thicken up on its own). While it was watery I filled the holes in the cupcakes so that some of the chocolate would be absorbed by the surrounding cupcake and make them moist and flavorful.

Let the rest of the ganache sit and it will start to thicken up. You can speed up this process by placing it in the refrigetaor, but don’t leave it in there too long. Once it is more of a chocolate sauce then a liquid, refill the holes in the cupcakes replacing what was absorbed by the cake. You can use a plastic bag, (scoop in the chocolate and cut off the corner, and squeeze it into the cupcake), but mine was mostly still full from when I poured in the more liquid chocolate, so I just used a spoon. When I was done, I iced the cupcakes with a thin layer of the ganache so that there was some in every bite because again, this is the best part.

Frosting:

To make the frosting, beat the butter and confectioners sugar until light and creamy, about 2-3 minutes and then slowly add in the Bailey’s Irish Cream. Again, it called for a lot less Bailey’s but I found the frosting to taste like really sweet butter, so this recipe increases the Bailey’s added. It called for 6 tablespoons and I actually doubled it to 12 (3/4 cup). You can always use the taste and add approach to this until you find a frosting that you like. 

I don’t have piping bags, so I placed the frosting in a regular Ziplock bag and cut off the corner. Squeeze the icing onto the cupcakes and you are done!

(My cupcakes)

 Pin Review:
These can be made by the average pinner, but they do not taste as promised without some changes to the recipe. The drawbacks are the pricey ingredients (for cupcake standards) and the mess. You need to use quite a few bowls, spoons and appliances. However, the cupcakes were a huge hit and I have already ben asked to make them again.

The lawyer in me feels like I should also state the obvious, just incase. While there is probably not enough in these cupcakes to make you drunk, not all of the alcohol is cooked out of them so they DO  CONTAIN ALCOHOL. This product is not appropriate for children, pregnant women, anyone recovering from addiction, etc.
 

Pinning Is Only Half The Battle

..actually, in most cases it is a lot less than half.

I used to be one of those people who refused to use Pinterest. For whatever reason I decided that there was absolutely no need for it and that I was not going to use it and I fought the trend.  I don’t think I had a real reason for it, I just didn’t want to submit to the craze.

Somewhere, somehow, that changed. I don’t know when it happened or how it happened but I started pinning and I haven’t stopped since. I pin everything- recipes, photography ideas, children’s projects, home projects, art projects, party ideas…you name it. The thing is, as with most people, I am an ambitious pinner with only a slightly creative hand. Most of those things don’t get passed the pinning stage because they get lost in the sheer number of things that I have pinned, but I have actually attempted quite a few projects and recipes.

The problem is, almost everything on Pinterest claims to be “so easy to do” or “the most delicious recipe, ever!” Not all pins are what they claim to be! (Imagine that! Can’t believe everything you read on the internet!) Of course, people aren’t going to pin things and say, “This took me 4 months to make and it still doesn’t work” or “I would rather eat dog food!” but the reality is that not everything is delicious and some things are just not made for the average D-I-Y attempter. 

Sure, building a playhouse out of pallets is “so easy” if you are a carpenter or an architect but it isn’t “so easy, anyone can do it!”  And sure that super healthy dessert with half the calories and all the taste is delicious but it also contained 4 ingredients, each costing over $8.00 that I had to go to three different organic health food stores to find. So, it may cut calories but it is hardly a cost effective, time saving treat. (Oh, and there is no way that your children will really love it more than ice cream!) 

I have even attempted some pins that were just plain lies. It wasn’t a matter of whether it was easy or time consuming. It just didn’t work.  On the other hand, some projects actually turned out to be a lot easier than I had anticipated.

Can you make anything you want glow using glow sticks? Does vinegar really clean everything under the sun? Can you use applesauce as a recipe substitute? I don’t know all the answers but I do know some and I have even modified some recipes and Pinterest projects to be better or at least easier. (Toot, toot!)

So I have decided that, I am going to provide some “Pin Reviews.” Before I buy anything on the internet I always Google the reviews first (mostly because returning things you bought online is a pain in the a**). If someone else already bought it and discovered it is going to break in less than a week, why should I buy it?

Same applies to pinning. If I already lost three days of my life trying to make a bee trap out of honey, a water bottle and a paperclip (Call me Macgyver!) because Pinterest promised I would never be bothered by bees in my yard again, and the bees were unaffected then why should you waste your time, too?

By the way, I never tried that bee trap thing and I don’t know if it involves any of those items. But I did pin something about an “easy” bee trap- I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

So check back for my Pin Under Review and I will let you know what I think is possible, delicious and worth the effort and what is just…not!

Pins Reviewed:

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes