I had a lot of fun making these. Actually…
I had a lot of fun making the cake, and eating the edges.
Let me explain… This Guinness cake tastes delish. Perfect by itself, I think it would taste great with a very light frosting of some kind. Maybe a fluffy Bailey’s buttercream? It’s got a really great flavor, with just a hint of Guinness. And it’s super moist. Plus I added the green food color to make it a little more fun. The only downside is that the edges got a little too brown to be considered pretty. So I ate most of them.
I kind of made a booboo and forgot to write down the length of time I baked the cake for, but I think it was about 35 minutes. Be smart and peek in the oven window every so often before that, just to make sure. 😉
I had a lot of fun making sure the ganache tasted “right”. Who wouldn’t!?
Make sure the ganache is COLD before you try to whip it, if it’s still warm it won’t work. Don’t ask me why, I have no idea (that’s what the interwebs say, so it must be true). It took mine about 5 minutes to get as fluffy as I wanted it to be. Just give it time… be patient. This ganache is a little TOO chocolaty for me, the flavor really overpowered the Guinness cake. It’s really good, just a little to stong for such a light cake flavor.
Over all the ganache overpowered the cake crumbles. I used about 90% of the ganache I made. You can probably use less. I think it will depend on how crumbly/ cakey you want your truffles to be. Make sense? This was my first attempt at making truffles using cake so I was kind of winging it.
I didn’t have a particular amount of fun dipping these little guys into the chocolate. It’s a technique I still haven’t mastered. I started off using a spoon, but that was too messy. After the first few I realized that I had some lollipop sticks in the cupboard so I stuck the truffles on those, then dipped them. I used at least a whole bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips AND a little over a cup of white chocolate chips… you my use more or less, depending on how thick you like the chocolate covering, and how quick you get your cake balls/ truffles dipped. Ever notice how quickly white chocolate chips harden back up? I did. 😉
I also made some Minty Fudge this week using the McCormick recipe. The recipe online didn’t specify how much mint extract to use so I used a teaspoon of it. Then I added some mini chocolate chips to the top. You can never have too much chocolate, right?
Happy St. Paddy’s Day and Happy Baking!
-Hey Waitress!!
RECIPE HERE
Soo… I though I had posted this on St Paddy’s… (last Sunday) but apparently I only saved it as a draft. Drat! Better late then never!
Did you know Mark Twain and Clark Gable where both whiskey drinkers? I found that out while I was trying to find a name for these little guys. Maple Bacon Whiskey cupcakes get kind of annoying to say (and type). Anyways…
A tweet (Real men eat cupcakes: Butch Bakery revs up the classic confection with bacon and liquor inspired treats http://fxn.ws/wqsUzO) from FoxNews inspired this weeks Sunday Cupcakery. No joke… these ar definitely “manly”, and probably a bit seasonal too. I think they’d be good in the Fall. was that random? Side note- I’m addicted to social media, and I’m ok with it.
I searched the net, and found a few recipes. Most of the used shortening (gross) or bacon fat (grosser). A lot of them also just used plain vanilla or white cake… which wouldn’t have enough booze flavor for me. About to give up, I stumbled on MyDysfunctionalKitchen‘s bacon beer cupcake! TAH-DAAAAH! just what I wanted, except I changed the Guinness to Jameson’s and made my own buttercream.
As usual, I ended up with extra cupcakes (32, instead of 24)… so fill your tins up 3/4 and bake slightly longer if you only want 24. I’m not sure why but the middle of these “caved-in”. I’m wondering if I should have whipped the egg whites before mixing them in?So, for some cupcake camo I filled the divot in with extra frosting.
I used a basic buttercream frosting recipe. I ended up using about 3.5 cups of powdered sugar, and it came out nice and fluffy. There wasn’t much whiskey taste… but just the hint was enough for me. Don’t forget to save a few slices of bacon to garnish them with!
Happy baking.
-Hey Waitress!!
This was my second try on B&W cookies… and I’m superduper happy with the way they came out.
Starting with the cookie its self. The original recipe was from The Boozy Baker (Black & White Russian Cookies, pg 94). I used it for the Bailey’s B&W’s, and thought that it’d work with Guinness too! So I HAD to give it a try. This time around the batter was slightly thinner, but not enough to be very noticeable. In the Boozy Baker she uses a 1/3 cup scoop, and made 12 cookies. I used a 1/4 c scoop and got 16 cookies. I also used hot chocolate mix instead of instant espresso… I baked them for 15 minutes, and they came out slightly browned on the edges. As a side note- I really love the cakeyness( haha new word!) of these cookies. It’s sort of like a cookie and a piece of cake did “it” and this is the result!
As for the frosting… I didn’t LOVE the one in Boozy Baker. It was kind of thin, and it (mostly) absorbed into the cookie after a few days. I decided to use the filling from the Irish CarBomb Cupcakes as a frosting, instead of the recipe in the book. If you notice on the Irish Black & White recipe page both the black & white frostings have the same directions. In fact the only difference is the type of chocolate! I heated all the cream in the same sauce pot, then poured 1/2 in a measuring cup (=1/4 cup), then added the white chocolate and butter, and stirred until smooth. Next I stirred in the Bailey’s & Jameson’s until it was all mixed. I just tossed the chopped semi-sweet chocolate & the other tablespoon of butter into the sauce pot with the remaining cream, stirred smooth, and added the Bailey’s & Jameson’s. I (had to forget something) didn’t check to see how long the frostings took to thicken but it was at least 10 minutes, try putting it in the fridge. The white chocolate mix won’t get as thick as the regular chocolate… I’m not sure why. And it’s not exactly white, it’s more… off white, or ivory. I frosted the white halves first, then the black. They’re sort of messy to make with all the frosting, so I’d def. put some parchment paper down, and store/ serve them in single layers because the frosting won’t completely harden.
Hope you like them!
-Hey Waitress!!
I served a lot of Irish CarBombs at the bar, and 90% of them where during St Patties Day celebrations. So, as March rolled around, I just HAD to give these a try. I was super surprised to find Irish Car Bomb cupcake recipes easily online… for the most part they were all very close to the same. Does that make sense? It’s a good thing I wasn’t an English Major, huh?
The cupcake recipe I used was from smittenkitchen.com.
When I simmered the Guinness & butter, I chunked the butter to help it melt down quicker.
I started off filling my cups 2/3 full, but I would def do them all 3/4 next time.
I cored them using a paring knife.
The filling I used was from wearenotmartha.com.
It was originally made to fill 12 cupcakes, so I doubled it!
It also used bitter-sweet chocolate, but all I could find was semi-sweet. I used Baker’s (brand name).
This filling was very liquidey (ha! I KNOW that’s not a word), so I let it cool a bit, then filled the cupcakes.
Some of my chocolate chunks didn’t melt all the way, but i left them in there for texture. Or, I was just being lazy.
after filling I put the tops back on, and then spread the leftover filling over the cupcakes. For future reference- don’t even bother with putting the tops back on.
I saw one version of this recipe that dipped the cupcakes in the filling instead of coring & filling them… shit, I’ve rewritten that sentence 3 times, and it STILL looks funny. You get what I was saying, right?
The Guinness buttercream was from celebrations.com.
As the original recipe called for I simmered the Guinness for 15 minutes. Nothing happened. Then I simmered for 5 more. Still nothing happened. It didn’t thicken, or reduce. I’m not sure why. I’ll probably skip the simmering next time.
The original recipe uses 1 cup of Guinness… I thought that was way too much. I like the consistency and the taste using just 1/4 c.
I also added a smidge of green gel food coloring to make them more festive! Oh fine, they were supposed to have shamrocks iced on top, but they looked horrible so I smoothed them out.
The frosting color before the food coloring is almost the same color as the head on a Guinness. If I ever make these for anything besides St. Pattie’s, I’ll leave the green out, and smoosh the frosting on to look like the foamy head!
random thoughts about…
This cupcake uses LOTS of pots and bowls. Unless you’re me, and you only have one mixing bowl and one saucepan. Then it uses a lot of dish soap.
I heard you can’t order Irish CarBombs in a “real” Irish bar?
Happy March!!
-Hey Waitress!!
Unremarkable 