Happy St. Patrick's Day! -- Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

So. I didn't want to do what I did last year with Cinco De Mayo, and be way behind on the holiday baking and have to do it all in one night. So this time around, after weeks of bookmarking multiple contenders for my St. Patrick's Day Post recipe... I did exactly the same thing. Oops.

See, I didn't take my schedule into account. Or the fact that I was leaving the state to visit a friend for the weekend and wouldn't be around my laptop to post or cook at all. I realized this... yesterday. So after FINALLY viewing the apartment I will be moving into in two weeks (small kitchen, but I'll take it!) I rushed to the liquor store and got the necessary goodies. As I left the store the cashier called after me "Enjoy your Car Bombs!" to which I whipped around and replied,

"I'm making cupcakes."

I was up until 11 o'clock last night baking cupcakes.

It was SO worth it though. The Guinness (not my favorite beer by a long shot) adds depth and flavor to these without making them taste... well, beery... and the filling is a creamy ganache spiked with Bailey's and Jameson, and the frosting is a sweet and delicious Bailey's buttercream. Really fantastic.

I'm pleased with how these pictures came out too. Natural lighting really makes a big difference, huh?

Did I mention that exactly a year ago today I was in Burbank, California, dressed as a leprechaun for the Jay Leno Show as they tried to break the world record for most leprechauns in a single room. I'll find the picture later, as I don't have time now, but yeah, you can clearly see my face in the 2012 Guinness Book of World Records. Sadly next year I won't be in it, since the record has already been beat by a group in Ireland--rightly so, I think.

Why am I not living there now? Some day, California, some day...

These are from We Are Not Martha, and, I know, I should use recipes from more blogs than just them and Can You Stay for Dinner? (both two of my very favorites and somewhat of the inspiration for this blog) but I have been saving this recipe for a year, waiting for the perfect moment to use it. And, as I cored out the Guinness chocolate stout out of each cupcake, I realized that I already know what I'll do next year, if not sooner:

Irish. Car bomb. CAKE POPS.

I'm a genius. I know, I know.

I will update with the actual recipe later, and with my little alterations from the original, as I'm on my way out. But really you should just go to We Are Not Martha, because it's pretty much the exact same recipe. Go, make boozy cupcakes, be merry. Drink copious amounts of green beer.

But don't, really, green beer is nasty.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

(here are two pics from when I traveled to Ireland... difficult to find any sans ex boyfriends, so they're not the best pics, oh well!)

At the Giant's Causeway in 2007

In Dublin in 2010, next to a famous statue whose name is escaping me at the moment