Guinness Cupcakes with Baileys Buttercream

I, too, jumped on the St. Patrick's Day bandwagon and decided to make the Irish Car Bomb cupcakes. I left out the ganache filling, so technically these were chocolate
stout cupcakes topped with Baileys buttercream icing. I sent these to work with Randy and his coworkers devoured them as usual.

I wasn't really that impressed with the cake part of the cupcake. The cupcakes didn't really rise and stuck to the cupcake liners. The flavor was good, though. I did make a few changes as indicated in red, so maybe that was where I erred. Now the icing is a different story. If you like Bailey's, then you'll love this icing. It was so good that I couldn't stop "tasting" it. 

Guinness Cupcakes with Baileys Buttercream
Source: Smitten Kitchen
Yields 24 cupcakes

Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes
1 cup stout (I used Guinness.)
2 sticks butter (I used salted.)
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt (I omitted since I used salted butter.)
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream (I used reduced fat.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with 24 liners.

Bring beer and butter to a simmer in a saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk together flour, sugar, and baking soda and set aside. Beat together eggs and sour cream in another large bowl. Add chocolate mixture and beat to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined.

Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full. Bake about 15 - 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a wire rack.

Baileys Buttercream
4 cups powdered sugar
1 stick butter (room temperature)
4 - 6 tablespoons Baileys Irish Cream

Cream butter until smooth. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time and Irish cream until desired consistency is reached. Beat well. Ice cupcakes and enjoy.