Better Late than Never

Well, I didn't exactly get to post this on time, but it was definitely worth the wait!  For St. Patrick's Day I found a recipe for Guinness Cupcakes with a Bailey's Frosting.  It is out of this world!  I wish every day were St. Paddy's Day.  I sampled the batter, filling and frosting all before they were baked/completed and everything tasted so good, I knew the final outcome would be outstanding.  The cupcakes came out so moist, it was like eating a sponge.  It is now 3 days later and they are still moist.  Now that is an A+ in my book. 

I found the recipe on the Good Morning America website.  I had looked through all of my cookbooks to see if there was something simple I could make, and I was successful in finding two recipes.  Unfortunately I didn't have some of the ingredients, so I'm glad I could count on Good Morning America!

Now, I have to let you know that the directions said it would take me about an hour and a half to create these delicious cakes.  But it took me about 3 hours.  I'm pretty sure it was because I decided to drink some of the left over Guinness and call my parents, but that's besides the point. 

I started out with the Guinness cupcakes.  Simple enough to make, I started out on the stove top whisking together butter, Guinness and cocoa powder.  You may see the word butter a lot in this post, but that's because I used a lot of it.  I used a total of 3 sticks of butter between the cupcakes, filling and frosting.  At least it wasn't a whole carton right?
Once I finished on the stove top, I beat more butter and some sour cream in my mixer, followed by a combination of dry ingredients:  flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda.  Once the sour cream, butter and dry ingredients were combined, I added the stove top liquid.  Now don't over mix the batter.  Once it looks combined you're done.  I then scooped the batter into 24 regular cupcake tins and 12 mini cupcake tins.  The recipe made a lot!  They baked for 17 minutes at 350, and taken out to rest for 5-10 minutes.
While the cupcakes were in the oven, I started putting together the chocolate filling. 

Into the filling went 8 oz. of chocolate, heavy cream, butter and Bailey's.  I heated it until it began to simmer, then let it set and thicken.  When the cupcakes came out, my lovely assistant Brian helped me fill the cakes.  Since I don't have one of those fancy filler contraptions, Brian came up with the idea of taking one of my old piping tips and pushing it into the center of the cupcake.  When he pulled it out, the cake came out.  It worked well enough for me, so he continued with the rest of the cupcakes.  Then he poured the filling into the center.  It took a minute to get the hang of it, but our teamwork prevailed and so did the cupcakes!

The frosting was easy enough to whip together, powdered sugar, butter and Bailey's was all that was required.  Once it was ready I piped it on and into our mouths the cupcakes went.  We are still eating them to this day, and I highly recommend them to everyone.  Just keep this in mind, you can eat these any time of year because you can drink Guinness any time of  year.  So it works out!

Enjoy!