Recipe: Chocolate stout cupcakes with Bailey's icing

Boozy cupcakes? Then it must be St. Patrick's Day! Since it's widely known in the United States as a holiday for drinking and debauchery, I thought it'd be appropriate to share a great recipe for cupcakes that are sure to make your family and friends (and coworkers...) go "WOWWIE, that's got some Irish kick!"

Ingredients

Cupcakes
* 1 cup stout (I used Guinness extra stout)
* 1 cup unsalted butter
* 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 2 cups all purpose flour
* 2 cups sugar
* 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 2 large eggs
* 2/3 cup sour cream

Ganache
* 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (I used semi-sweet morsels)
* 2 tbsp heavy cream
* 1 tbsp butter, room temperature
* 1 to 2 tsp Bailey's Irish Cream

Frosting
* 2 to 3 cups confectioners sugar
* 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
* 2 to 3 tsp Baileys
* 1 tsp heavy cream

Method

Cupcakes

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line your cupcake pan.

2. Bring your beer and butter to a slight simmer in a heavy saucepan. (Hey HP fans, butterbeer!) Whisk in cocoa powder until smooth and set aside to cool slightly.

3. Mix your eggs and sour cream together in a large bowl. In a slightly smaller bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.

4. Add chocolate-butter-beer mixture to egg mixture and beat until combined. Add flour in several additions and blend in slowly. Finish combining ingredients with a rubber spatula. You'll notice the batter bubbling up a bit. Allow the batter to sit for about 10 minutes.

5. Fill your cupcake liners 2/3 of the way full and bake for 20 minutes. Bake until a wooden toothpick through the center comes out clean. Cool cupcakes completely on a wire rack.

Ganache

1. Chop your bittersweet chocolate and set aside in a heat proof bowl (or, if you have the morsels, simply dump 'em in).

2. Heat your heavy cream in a saucepan until it simmers and slowly pour over the chopped chocolate. Give it a minute to penetrate all the chocolate and then whisk until smooth.

3. Add in butter and Bailey's and mix completely. Allow it to cool while you prepare the icing.

Frosting

1. Whisk butter until smooth.

2. Slowly spoon about a tablespoon of confectioner's sugar at a time and whip until fluffy.

3. Add in the Bailey's for a kick, and the cream to thin it out a bit. Add more sugar if your frosting is too runny or more Bailey's or milk (I recommend Bailey's...) if it's too stiff.

4. Fill a piping bag with the icing and get to icing those suckers!

5. After icing, take the ganache and pour over the cupcakes: Take a whisk and mix until smooth, then using back and forth motions over each cupcake, drizzle some chocolate over each cupcake. You will absolutely have leftover ganache.