Chocolate Porter Cupcakes with Irish Whiskey Ganache and Baileys Irish Cream Frosting

Boondock Saintcakes
(Chocolate Porter Cupcakes with Irish Whiskey Ganache and Baileys Irish Cream Frosting)

Cupcakes:
1 cup porter or stout (I used my sister's home-brewed coffee porter, which was excellent)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup cocoa powder
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 F. Over medium heat, bring beer and butter to simmer. Whisk in cocoa powder until smooth (actually it doesn't get completely smooth, since the oil in the butter makes the cocoa powder "clump" somewhat) and remove from heat.

In another bowl, sift together flour, sugar, and baking soda. In a mixer, beat the eggs and sour cream until smooth. Add the chocolate mixture and beat until just combined. Add the dries and beat until just combined.

Divide batter into cupcake tin. Bake 10 minutes, turn, bake 10 minutes. Makes 24.

Irish Whiskey Ganache:
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup Baileys Irish Cream
1 tbsp butter
2 tsp Irish whiskey

Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it simmers -- there will be bubbles around the edge of the saucepan. Stir together chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl; you will probably have to make a double boiler to get the two to combine smoothly. Once smooth, add the butter, Baileys, and whiskey and stir until combined. Let cool.

Frosting:
6 cups xxx sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temp.
8 tbsp Baileys Irish Cream

Cream the butter until it's pale and fluffy. Sift in the powdered sugar, then add the Baileys and beat until smooth. The icing will have a very pale brown color.


To complete:

Take the cooled cupcakes and cut a small hole in the center of each. I used a coring knife, as pictured. Fill the center holes with the ganache. There should be just enough -- I ran out on the last two and had to use some ganache I had saved from another recipe, so you may want to make your holes a little shallower or use less ganache. Or just make an oz more chocolate, it's pretty much up to you.

Using a piping bag, pipe the frosting onto the tops of the cupcakes to cover the holes and leave a little point on top. Filled cupcakes are better pipe than to spread, but you can always do that as well. I only had a little icing left over at the end. Decorate according to your preference.

WARNING: these cupcakes are very alcoholic and are almost 100% definitely unsuitable for kids.

All recipes from we are not martha

Red Velvet Three-Chocolate Hi-Hat Cupcakes

Red Velvet Three-Chocolate Hi-Hat Cupcakes

Happy birthday to my great friend Dal.

Cupcakes:

2 1/2 cups flour, sifted

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 vegetable oil

2 eggs

1/2 tsp red food color (or as much as you need to make batter red)

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Whisk together flour and cocoa. With an electric mixer, whisk together sugar and oil until combined. Add eggs one at a time. Add food color and vanilla.

Add flour in three batches, alternating with buttermilk.

In a little bowl, stir together the baking soda and vinegar until combined. Add to the batter and mix for 10 seconds.

Divide batter into cupcake tins. Bake 10 minutes, turn, and bake another 10.

Makes 24.

Frosting:

3 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup water

6 egg whites

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp almond extract

In a heatproof bowl, combine sugar, water, egg whites, and cream of tartar. Beat until foamy, about 1 minute.

Set bowl over a pan of simmering water, and beat on high speed until frosting forms stiff peaks, about 12 minutes; use a candy thermometer to make sure frosting is 160 degrees. You definitely want an electric handheld mixer for this. I had to do part of it by hand because my handheld broke, and yeah, it was miserable.

Remove from heat, stir in extracts, and beat for two more minutes.

Using a piping bag with a large tip, pipe a spiral of frosting into a cone shape about two inches high.

Once the cupcakes are all frosted, stick them in the freezer for an hour.

Chocolate coating:

1 bag dark chocolate chips

1 bag milk chocolate chips

1 bag white chocolate chips

6 tbsp vegetable oil

Melt together each chocolate with two tbsp of oil, each in a separate bowl, being careful not let the chocolate burn (I used a double boiler, but the microwave will work fine here too as long as you take it out and stir often).

Let it cool down to room temperature, about fifteen minutes.

When the cupcakes and the chocolate are cool, remove the cupcakes from the freezer. Carefully turn them upside down and dip them into the dark chocolate until it covers all the frosting. Lift it out, let it drip for a few moments, then turn it right side up again.

WARNING: the frosting, for some horrible reason, will try to melt anyway. I don't know, it's mean. So you will need to be quick with this step. Once you have coated all the cupcakes, return them to the freezer for 10 minutes.

Once the first layer is solid, repeat this with the white chocolate. You may have to heat the white chocolate again -- it solidifies faster than the other two, maybe because it's not real chocolate. Make sure you don't cover up the dark chocolate. Then back into the freezer!

Finally, dip the very tops of the cupcakes into the milk chocolate, making sure to leave a line of white chocolate showing, then freeze again.

It is best to serve these cupcakes chilled, because the chocolate gets melty again with very little provocation. On the other hand, they look super cool, and they taste pretty great! :D

Cupcakes adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.
Frosting adapted from marthastewart.com
Chocolate coating instructions from bakeitinacake.

Chocolate-Almond Cupcakes with Chocolate Almond Ganache

Chocolate-Almond Cupcakes with Chocolate Almond Ganache

Cupcakes:
2/3 cup finely ground bittersweet chocolate
1/2 cup finely ground almonds
3/4 cup self-rising flour, sifted
4 eggs, separated
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp warm milk

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Mix together chocolate, almonds, and flour. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar under thick and pale. Stir in the chocolate mixture, then the milk. The mixture will be incredibly thick at this point. I did not thin it, but in retrospect I think I would add a little more milk to make the batter thinner and more liquid.

Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until soft peaks form. Fold them into the batter until just combined (and this is why I think you could stand to thin the batter; I was not able to fold the egg whites because the batter was so thick, I had to beat them in with an electric mixer).

Bake for 6 minutes, turn, and bake for another 6 minutes. Let cool.

Ganache:
2/3 cup dark chocolate
1/3 cup (5 1/2 tbsp, or about 3/4 of the stick) butter
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp almond extract

Create your own double boiler using a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Melt together chocolate, butter, and cream, and stir until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in almond extract. Chill in the fridge until set.

Take the finished cupcakes and cut a small divot out of the top of each. Spoon in the chilled ganache (or pipe, if desired). If you wish, you can save the part of the cupcake that you scooped out and use it to top the ganache. Decorate with sprinkles.




I found that these cupcakes have a really interesting texture. Because of the bittersweet chocolate, they are not overly sweet, and the nut flour makes them very dense. I made some both mini and regular sized cupcakes, and I found that the mini ones were better because of the denseness.


Cupcake recipe from Cupcakes by Anneka Manning.
Ganache recipe by me.

Cherry Crumble Mini Cupcakes

Cherry Crumble Mini Cupcakes

Cupcakes:
3/4 cup butter, soft
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
1 cup self-rising flour
1/4 cup regular flour
1/2 cup canned plum juice (substitute 1/2 cup milk for juice if unavailable)
1 cup canned or fresh sweet cherries, cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line mini cupcake/muffin tin with paper liners.

Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla until creamy. Add in eggs one at a time, beating well. Sift in the flours and milk/juice. Mix in the cherries by hand; do not overmix.

Crumble:
1/2 cup raw sugar
1 cup flour
1/3 cup butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup chopped pecans, if desired.

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, using your hands, until the mixtures resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

Sprinkle crumble over the tops of the cupcakes, covering them well.

Bake for 10 minutes, turn pan, and bake for another 10 minutes.

This is another recipe that lied to me about quantity. It claims to make 24 mini cupcakes, but in reality there were 48. Also, regarding the plum juice. The original recipe calls for plums rather than cherries, and I picked it to use up some canned plums I had in the basement. However, although the juice was perfectly fine, the plums more or less disintegrated as soon as I took them out of the jar. I substituted the cherries because I happened to have them on hand.

I would not recommend switching in cherry juice because it's a lot stronger than plum juice, which is more or less just a simple syrup in which the plums have been floating -- so the taste is very mild. If you have a mild fruit juice on hand, maybe a pear juice even orange juice, that would probably be an all right substitute. On the other hand, milk should meet the requirements for a liquid just as well without having to worry about interfering with the taste of the cupcakes.

Adapted from Anneka Manning's Cupcakes.