Today's Brent's 30th birthday. Last year, I made Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake, (http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/08/chocolate-peanut-butter-cake/), for those who need to have that recipe NOW. This year I wanted to make something he would love equally if not more than the Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake. That's a tall order. I started surfing the internet, and it would be Smitten Kitchen again that saves the day: Chocolate Whiskey and Beer Cupcakes. I looked through our cupboards and fridge and we happened to have 1 can of Guinness stout, Jack Daniel's whiskey, and Baileys Cream, all the main ingredients for the cupcakes. This was going to be a great surprise.
I headed over to Walgreen's and Safeway to pick up some butter and other breakfast items and snacks for the weekend since Brent's having some friends over to play miniature fantasy board games. While I was at Safeway, I decided to get this year's flu vaccination. I wasn't going to do so this year; however, since I volunteer at the nearby food bank and thus am in close contact with our local homeless population I decided I better get the vaccination this year for my sake as well as everyone else I'll see this October. With the vaccination, I got 10% off my groceries, so of course I piled up on all sorts of items like Spiced Apple Cider, liquid detergent, milk, peanut butter...all the heavy stuff. Oh yeah, did I mention I was walking home!!! So the journey home begins, with me carrying way too much, about $100 worth of groceries. After many stops to readjust the bags or just to shift the weight around, I finally make it home only to find that somewhere between home and Walgreen's and Safeway I lost my keys. Argh! I guess at this point I should mention that I had left my cellphone at home because it was supposed to be a quick trip to the market. What a mistake. So I'm standing outside my building with bags and bags of groceries, mostly perishable items, and no way inside. I buzz all my neighbors, no answer...great. So I'm sitting outside for about an hour until some lady finally exits the building (why the hell didn't she answer when I buzzed?). I'm in. I carry all the items up our three flights of stairs and leave them outside my apartment door and head back outside, knowing full well that I won't have a way to get back into the building again.
Retracing my steps around town with no luck. I finally give up on ever relocating my lost keys. I get change for a dollar for the pay phone. I still can't believe the pay phone exists. Two calls later and a dollar spent, I learn that I do not know Brent's phone number. Last resort, I have to go to downtown to Brent's office and get his key set. I considered hailing a cab, but as I was leaving Walgreen's a bus arrives. I hop on the bus and of course I do not have my ID. Luckily, I happen to have some money on me from the other day when I had to pay my $1 library fine. The bus slowly crawls into town, being delayed by draw bridge traffic and just your normal 2:00pm crazy ridership. I make it to Brent's office, standing outside until somebody's willing to let me inside. Brent of course is not surprised my ridiculous luck.
I get the keys and make my way back to catch the next bus. Who knew that the next bus would be over 40 minutes later. I guess with my luck that day I shouldn't have been surprised. I finally do make it home around 4:00pm. Nothing was spoiled except for my birthday surprise. Brent arrived home around 5:00pm and helped me make his birthday cupcakes and posed for a picture with his birthday present, Penn State gear. The company made a mistake and sent us two navy and one white shirt instead of the one navy, white and gray that I ordered (and the hooded sweatshirt pullover and sweatpants I ordered). I was a bit disappointed by this, but Brent didn't mind.
Makes about 20 to 24 cupcakes
Recipe from Smitten Kitchen (http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/01/car-bomb-cupcakes/)
**I didn't alter this recipe at all, with the exception of using only a grapefruit spoon to core the cupcakes. Below is the recipe from Smitten Kitchen.**
While the Guinness in the cake gets mostly baked out, the Baileys is fresh and potent, so if you’re making this for people who don’t drink — ahem, nobody I know, but I hear such people exist — you’ll probably want to swap it with milk.
The Baileys frosting recipe makes a smallish amount of frosting — enough to just cover the cupcakes. Because they were so rich and this frosting so sweet, I felt it only needed a little. Double it if you want more of a towering effect.
For the Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes
1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
Ganache Filling
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 to 2 teaspoons Irish whiskey (optional)
Baileys Frosting
3 to 4 cups confections sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperatue
3 to 4 tablespoons Baileys (or milk, or heavy cream, or a combination thereof)
Special equipment: 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer and a piping bag (though a plastic bag with the corner snipped off will also work)
Make the cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.
Make the filling:
Chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth. (If this has not sufficiently melted the chocolate, you can return it to a double-boiler to gently melt what remains. 20 seconds in the microwave, watching carefully, will also work.) Add the butter and whiskey (if you’re using it) and stir until combined.
Fill the cupcakes:
Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped (the fridge will speed this along but you must stir it every 10 minutes). Meanwhile, using your 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer, cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. You want to go most of the way down the cupcake but not cut through the bottom — aim for 2/3 of the way. A slim spoon or grapefruit knife will help you get the center out. Those are your “tasters”. Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.
Make the frosting:
Whip the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, for several minutes. You want to get it very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time.
[This is a fantastic trick I picked up while working on the cupcakes article for Martha Stewart Living; the test kitchen chefs had found that when they added the sugar slowly, quick buttercream frostings got less grainy, and tended to require less sugar to thicken them up.]
When the frosting looks thick enough to spread, drizzle in the Baileys (or milk) and whip it until combined. If this has made the frosting too thin (it shouldn’t, but just in case) beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.
Ice and decorate the cupcakes. [I used a star tip and made little "poofs" everywhere and sprinkled it with various colors of sanding sugar to keep it looking festive for New Years. I bet shaved dark and white chocolates would look gorgeous as well.]
Do ahead:
You can bake the cupcakes a week or two in advance and store them, well wrapped, in the freezer. You can also fill them before you freeze them. They also keep filled — or filled and frosted — in the fridge for a day. (Longer, they will start to get stale.)
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