Drunken St. Patty's Day Cupcakes

Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting.

AH-mazing - seriously, yum.

Before I get to the recipes, let me just mention that I did *not* forget that Lulu had a 2 month milestone day on Saturday, so I owe you guys some updated info and pics of her, but she has her appointment with Dr. Andy today, so I figured I'd wait until after that. I WILL say that she continues to be the best baby sister ever - I *love* her. I even woke her up the other day just because I wanted to see her!

So. On to the cupcakes! Mommy was inspired by Pinterest (duh); the cupcake was pinned here, and the frosting was here - but she did tweak them just a teeny bit. Apologies for the awful iPhone photo of our finished product above, but Mommy's camera is broken again....

Guinness Cupcakes

• 1 bottle of Guinness Stout (Mommy actually used the Extra Stout because that's the kind Daddy likes and he was the one drinking the other 5 bottles
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (Is Canola oil vegetable oil? That's what Mommy used, because that's what we had in the cabinet.)
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs (I think we used extra large. Oops.)
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (Mommy used Hershey's.)
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1. Preheat the oven. The original recipe called for 350 degrees, but Mommy decided to make mini cupcakes instead of full sized ones, so she opted for 325.


2. Mix all the wet ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Beat in the eggs one at a time and add the sour cream last. We are not sure why the order would matter, but that's what the directions said, so that's what we did.


3. Whisk together all the dry ingredients in another large mixing bowl.


4. Dump the dry mixture into the wet a little bit at a time and mix well.


5. You could either butter the cupcake tins or take the lazy easy way out and find cute cupcake liners - Mommy went for a St. Patty's day theme and used liners with shamrocks on them! Fill the liners (tins) about 3/4 of the way up. (At this point, Mommy was a little worried because the batter seems super-liquidy and drippy. If that happens to you, too, don't worry - apparently it's okay, because our cupcakes baked fine.)
   


6. Bake. For the mini ones, Mommy put them in for 18 minutes at 325, but full sized would be about 25 minutes at 350.

Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting

• 3 to 4 cups confectioner's sugar (Mommy hates this kind of recipe; which is it? 3? 4? Make up your mind! You KNOW *we* used 4 cups though because, duh, more sugar = more yummy.)
• 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature (Mommy started with one stick, but ended up adding another half stick because the last cup of sugar made the frosting a little clumpy.)
• 3 to 4 tablespoons of Bailey's Irish Cream (Again with the indecision. Mommy ended up with about 6 tablespoons, plus a slosh of milk to get the consistency she wanted.)

1. Put 2 cups of sugar, 1 stick of butter and all of your Bailey's in a large mixing bowl. Beat for 5 minutes, until smooth and creamy.


2. Add the remaining 2 cups of sugar, one at a time, and beat for 2 minutes following each cup. Add the other half stick of butter and the slosh of milk (or more Bailey's) as needed to keep the frosting smooth.

Mommy used a fancy pants frosting bag and a tip to get the flowery frosting look (it was WAY easier than she anticipated) and sprinkled some green sugar on top for decoration - delicious! Mommy doesn't even like beer, but the flavor isn't noticeable in the cupcakes unless you know it's there; they just taste like super-rich chocolate: so, so good. You can definitely taste the Bailey's in the frosting and it goes perfectly with the chocolate cupcakes.