Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

These are amazing. Possibly the best cupcakes I've ever made. It's funny because I'd decided to make cupcakes for a friend's birthday this weekend and got online to poke around on some food blogs to see if anything looked interesting. I went to smitten kitchen first and Deb had posted these cupcakes that very day. Ironically this exact same thing happened a couple weeks ago when I was looking for a good sandwich bread recipe and Deb had posted one that same day as well. It makes fantastic bread by the way, but I've been upping the salt to 2 1/2 tsps.... in case you give it a whirl. It's like smitten kitchen is my baking oracle; Deb knows what I want to bake before I do!


Anyways, back to the cupcakes. Considering all the steps involved, they aren't too hard to make and it's totally worth the extra time. They are super moist, and have a really rich flavor... the beer maybe?? The centers are cut out and filled with a simple ganache, I might add a splash of whiskey to it next time to make it really authentic. Then they are topped with a totally decadent Bailey's frosting. I'm not usually one for lots of icing, but I could eat this stuff with a spoon.

I also have to confess I caved and bought a cupcake tote this weekend. I feel like a total dork, but man is it nice. I could only find 12 and 36 seater boxes, and since bigger is always better... I now have the world's biggest cupcake carrier. But it makes it so unbelievably easy to carry and keep these babies, and they stay nice and fresh.