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Cupcake Ingredients
1 box Betty Crocker SuperMoist devil’s food cake mix
1 1/4 cups Guinness stout beer
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
Preheat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups.
In large bowl, beat all cupcake ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Divide batter evenly among the muffin cups using a cookie scoop for easy filling.
Bake 18 to 23 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove cupcakes from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely.
Irish Whiskey Ganache Ingredients
8 oz. good quality dark chocolate, chopped (I used Ghirardelli, 1 bar of bittersweet chocolate and 1 bar semi-sweet chocolate)
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup Irish whiskey (I used Jameson)
To Make Ganache filling:
Coarsely chop chocolate bars and place in a heat proof bowl. In a small saucepan, bring cream and Irish whiskey just to a boil over medium-high heat. Pour cream mixture over chocolate and let stand for 1 minute, until chocolate has softened. Whisk the mixture until smooth and chocolate is melted and shiny. Transfer bowl to refrigerator and let stand until just chilled, stirring every 10 minutes and no longer than 30 minutes.
To fill cupcakes with ganache, transfer filling to piping bag fitting with a Wilton 2A tip. Insert tip directly into cupcake, squeezing as you pull the tip up and out of the cupcake to add filling.
Notes: I tried using Wilton Bismarck tip #230 for filling cupcakes but the opening is too narrow for ganache filling.
Irish Cream Buttercream Frosting Ingredients
6 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
4 Tbs. Bailey’s Irish Cream
3 tsp. milk
1/4 tsp. salt
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, combine all ingredients and beat on low speed until combined, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Increase the speed to medium and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
If the frosting is dry, add more milk, 1 tsp. at a time, until it is creamy but still holds peaks. Makes about 4 cups.
Transfer frosting to piping bag and top cupcakes. I used a Wilton 1M piping tip. Add some sprinkles or nonpareils if desired.