St. Patrick's Day

My great-grandparents came over from Ireland in the 1920s.  I remember very little about them:  their brogue (of which I was TERRIFIED because I couldn't understand them well!), the plastic cover on the sofa, a little bowl of candy, eating lunch there once, and oddly, I remember a little container they had full of half-dollars.  My great-grandfather died of a heart attack when I was six, but my great-grandmother died around Halloween the year I was sixteen.  She was 93!  By that point, I had learned to listen and understand her brogue.  She told me many stories, the most memorable being one night that she had TWO dates back-to-back!

Anyway, I figure I'm about half Irish.  When I lived in New England, it was easy to "remember" that....we'd go to St. Patrick's Day parades, to the local Irish club, and many people had Irish surnames and were proud of their heritage.  I find that harder to maintain outside Hungry Hill and New England.

We are sure to celebrate St. Patrick's Day here in Virginia, and one of the new things I've discovered is something called Irish Car Bomb cupcakes.  Completely inappropriate name, by the way, especially considering I'm Protestant and most of my Irish family is Catholic, but that's neither here nor there.

There are many recipes for these cupcakes online, all basically the same.  It's a chocolate stout cupcake, filled with an Irish whiskey ganache, frosted with an Irish creme buttercream.  Delicious, but very boozy.  I highly suggest a black cup of coffee.  Irish coffee would be just too much!

Here's the recipe, courtesy of Brown-Eyed Baker.

Makes 24 cupcakes

Cupcakes
1 cup stout (it doesn't matter what kind)
1 cup unsalted butter (I almost always use salted, and just reduce the salt a bit)
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Ganache filling
8 oz bittersweet chocolate (I've done it with chocolate chips, too)
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 Tbsp butter, room temperature
2 tsp Irish whiskey (just get a little nippy bottle...you'll be able to make a few batches with it)

Frosting
2 1/2 cups butter, room temperature
5 cups powdered sugar
6 Tbsp Irish cream (Baileys, of course, is the first choice)

Cupcake directions:

Heat oven to 350F.  Line 24 muffin cups with liners.  Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat.  Remove from heat and add stout and cocoa powder; whisk until smooth.  Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl.  Beat eggs and sour cream in mixer bowl until just combined.  Add stout mixture and beat to combine.  Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, being sure to mix completely.  Gently stir with rubber spatula to be sure it's completely mixed.  Be gentle!  Divide evenly among the 24 cupcake liners.  Bake until a tester comes out clean - about 17 minutes.  Cool cupcakes completely on a rack.

Ganache directions:

Chop chocolate and transfer to heat-proof bowl.  Heat cream to just simmering and pour over chocolate.  Let sit for one minute, then stir with rubber spatula until smooth.  It'll take a few minutes, but it will come together.  Add butter and whiskey and stir until combined.  Set aside until cooled, but still soft enough to be piped.

To fill cupcakes, use a 1-inch round cookie cutter to cut the center out of the cupcakes, going about two-thirds of the way down.  If you don't have a little cookie cutter, use the big end of a decorating tip, or just a little paring knife.  Transfer ganache to a piping bag with large tip (or a zip-top bag with a bit cut off one corner).  Fill the holes up to the top.

Frosting directions:

Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, whip butter on medium-high for about five minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.  Reduce to medium-low and gradually add powdered sugar until fully incorporated.  Add Irish creme, beating until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.

Frost cupcakes with your favorite decorating tip or an offset spatula.  I usually store mine in the fridge because of all the butter, but they don't last long, and the alcohol probably keeps everything fairly fresh.  Enjoy!