Chocolate Kahlua Cupcakes with Chocolate Kahlua-Baileys Whipped Cream Frosting

These have to be THE best cupcakes I've made so far. And they're chocolate. I usually can't stand chocolate! How is this possible that I love these so much?

 I was searching online for some liquored up cupcakes because that is my new thing to do lately.
I bought a couple mini bottles of Kahlua and Baileys and found a recipe for some Chocolate Kahlua Cupcakes. They sounded interesting, so I ended up making them, and WOW!
The cake is light and fluffy and not too sweet. I hate super sweet things so these were perfect! The frosting recipe called for only Kahlua but I think Bailey's goes so well with Kahlua that I decided to combine the two and WOW AGAIN!

These would be the perfect little breakfast cupcakes, with a cup of coffee in the morning. I don't even like chocolate so it really says a lot about these. The only thing I would change next time is the water/Kahlua mix (which I've put my revised version in the recipe). I would probably just use Kahlua, as I think the Kahlua flavor gets a little lost with the chocolate. It wasn't quite strong enough of a flavor for me in the end. There are a few other things I already changed with the recipe as I made them, so I wrote out my revised version of it.

I halfed the recipe below and it gave me 10 regular sized cupcakes. If you want to make the recipe for the 20 cupcakes, I would double the frosting recipe below, as I made it just how it says and it covered 10 perfectly.

I hope you try these out and let me know how they turn out for you!

Kahlúa Cupcakes
Makes 20 cupcakes (1/2 recipe makes 10 cupcakes)

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar (see my "tips" below for caster sugar)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1/2 cup cold water (*revised: skip water, use 1 cup Kahlua, or 3/4c. Kahlua & 1/4c. water)
1/2 cup Kahlúa
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Insert 20 liners into a cupcake pan.
2. In a large bowl cream together the butter, cocoa, and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and creamy, 3-5 minutes. Add vanilla and mix for 15 seconds. Add egg yolks and beat for 4 minutes.
3. In a small bowl mix water and Kahlúa.
4. In another large bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.
5. Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, then 1/2 of the Kahlua mixture. Then add another 1/3 dry, the other 1/2 Kahlua. Then end with the rest of the dry. Mix on medium speed until ingredients are just combined. Do not overbeat.
6. With clean beaters and a large bowl, beat the egg whites on high speed until they form soft peaks. Gradually beat in about 1/4 cup of sugar to make a meringue with stiff peaks, about 6-7 minutes. Do not overbeat. With a rubber spatula, fold the meringue into the batter.
7. Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of cupcake comes out clean. Turn pan upside down to remove cupcakes, and cool.
8. OPTIONAL, BUT MAKES IT BETTER: Remove cupcakes from pan. Poke a bunch of holes in the tops of each cupcake with a toothpick. Spoon a teaspoon of Kahlua (or brush) onto the tops of each cupcake.

TIPS:
-Bake immediately after combining the meringue into the batter. Do not let sit for too long after or else they may not rise properly.
-Also, these rise a LOT, so fill cups to halfway or a tiny bit more.
-I like to bake with caster sugar. I make my own in my Magic Bullet (you can use a blender or food processor, too): Measure out the granulated white sugar and process until finely ground. Re-measure out the amount needed for recipe and use that. You tend to get a little bit more sugar after grinding it than when first measured.

Chocolate Kahlúa Whipped Cream:
This must be refrigerated!

1 cup cold heavy cream
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp Kahlúa (a little more or less to taste)
2 tbsp Baileys (a little more or less to taste)

Sift together cocoa and confectioners sugar. Beat heavy cream until slightly thickened. Add Kahlúa, vanilla, and cocoa/sugar mix. Beat until desired consistency. Pipe onto cupcakes, and garnish with cute little bittersweet chocolate chips (optional).

TIPS:
-Chill the beaters and mixing bowl in the freezer for about 15 minutes before making the frosting, to make it thicken up easier.

http://en.petitchef.com/

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

I've been really wanting to get into making cupcakes. I love them, especially mini cupcakes. They're cute, bite size, and you don't have to feel guilty about eating one of them.  All cupcakes are are small versions of cakes, right? But I think they're something even more special. They can be their own little works of art in a tiny size.

This cupcake craving led me to hear about a place called Yummy Cupcakes in Burbank. They have all these different unique flavors that you would never really think of with cupcakes. Then I saw that they had a Guinness cupcake. I was like, "OoooOooooO I have to get that!". So I went and unfortunately missed the Guinness cupcakes by a day! Nooooooo! Ever since then I've been dying to know what these tasted like, so I decided to make my own.

My friend was having a housewarming party this past Saturday and thought it would be perfect to bring these cupcakes, and hope they turned out good. Of course, I had to make mini's because they're so cute. They went over sooo well! Everyone loved them. Next time I'm going to try this with Murphy's Irish Stout because that beer is a-ma-zing. I scoured the internet for recipes and found some that I thought sounded good.
 I forgot exactly where I got the recipe that I used to make these because I looked at so many, but I will post it below, of course.

Things in mini make everything taste better

 I made a few minor changes to the recipe, as I will let you know what I did as I go along. Also, I figured the Guinness and chocolate might be a little sweeter and heavier so I decided to make a Bailey's whipped cream frosting instead of the usual buttercream, to make it lighter.


So without further ado, Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes....
I doubled the recipe and it came out to around 40 small cupcakes and about 3 large ones.


BATTER
    1/2 cup Guinness (or other stout)
    1/2 cup butter (melted)
    3/8 cup (aka 1/4 + 1/8 cups) cocoa powder
    1 cup flour
    1 cup sugar
*Note: because I doubled the recipe it would have been 2 cups of sugar. I didn't want them too sweet so I used 1 1/2 cups and they were great. I also like to use Turbinado Raw Sugar instead of white.
    3/4 teaspoon baking soda
    1/2 teaspoon salt
    1 egg
    3/8 cup (aka 1/4 + 1/8 cups) cup sour cream

GNACHE
    3 1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate
    1/3 cup heavy cream
    1 tablespoon butter
    1 teaspoon Jameson whiskey (or other whiskey)
    1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

BAILEY'S WHIPPED CREAM FROSTING
    2 c. heavy whipping cream
    2/3 c. sugar
    2 T Baileys Irish Cream

CUPCAKE INSTRUCTIONS:
    Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F)
    Melt the butter (on the stovetop or in the microwave)
    Add Guinness and cocoa powder and stir to combine well
    In a large mixing bowl, mix the flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda
    In an electric mixer, beat egg and sour cream just until combined
    Add the flour mixture a little at a time until all of it is in and it is mixed well
    Add chocolate mixture and mix well, for about 3-4 minutes (I did it for 5 actually)
    Place cupcake papers in the muffin tin
    Spoon the mixture into the tin to fill about 3/4 full (you'll have enough for 12 cupcakes)
*These puff up a lot so don't overfill
    Bake for 17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
    Remove from oven and allow to cool fully

GNACHE:
    Gently heat cream on the stovetop
    Add chocolate and let sit for a few moments
    Stir gently until chocolate is melted and combined with the cream
    Mix in butter, vanilla, and Jameson
    Allow to cool until thick (semi-solid)
    Spoon into a pastry bag or plastic bag 
*Tip: You can add more alcohol to the gnache if you're careful. Just a lil less cream & butter

Mini heaven

FROSTING
    -Whip heavy whipping cream until it looks like whipped cream.
    -Mix in sugar and Baileys Irish Cream until just combined.
*
    After the cupcakes have cooled, use a small spoon or melon baller to scoop out the centers
    Pipe in ganache to fill (but try not to have them overflowing)
    Pipe icing onto the top. I used a Wilton decorating tip #18
    Lastly, I found some super cute golden sugar sprinkles to finish them