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In these Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Bailey’s Buttercream, the buttercream is light and fluffy, not too sweet, with a perfect pop of Bailey’s; the Guinness beer enhances the chocolate flavor and adds an extra lightness; and the salted caramel brings it all together into one magnificent St. Patty’s Day package of yumminess.
Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with a Salted Caramel Filling topped with a silky Bailey’s Irish Cream Buttercream.
Most people would fill these cupcakes with a Guinness Ganache, and I gave great thought to that, but I am not most people and I personally think Salted Caramel pairs better with the chocolate and Bailey’s Irish Cream flavors.
The hint of Bailey’s with the salted caramel and the deep, dark chocolate cake…Oh Dear Lord. People write poetry about stuff that isn’t even half this good.
I will warn you that once a year will not be sufficient! Come May you are going to find yourself craving these Irish inspired treats and that is okay. I’ll be right there with you!
Boozy Buttercream fanatics rejoice! Because I have found you your new best friend.
This Bailey’s Buttercream is divine. I mean seriously divine. It took every fiber of my Being not lick the spatula, the bowl, the whisk attachment and the piping bag clean.
I know. My shame has no bounds!
Celebrate the luck of the Irish with these Bailey’s Milk Chocolate caramel brownies, this Guinness chocolate cakes with caramel and ganache, or go savory with traditional Irish soda bread with raisins.
The key to getting the caramel to stay as a filling and not disappear into your cake is making sure that it is the right consistency before filling. It should flow like cooling lava, a slow, trudging flow. It should not fall like ribbons or be so hard that it doesn’t flow at all. You also want to make absolutely sure that your cake is 100% cooled.
Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Bailey’s Buttercream
Ingredients
For the Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes:
- ¾ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate chopped fine
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder
- ¾ cup Guinness beer
- 1 cup sour cream at room temperature
- 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 cup light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 5 eggs at room temperature
For the Bailey’s Irish Cream Buttercream:
- 1 cup butter room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 6 tablespoons Bailey’s Irish Cream
Instructions
To Make the Cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 325° and line 24 cupcake tins with liners.
- Combine cocoa, chocolate and espresso powder in a large bowl. Bring Guinness to just barely boiling in a small saucepan. Pour hot Guinness over chocolate mixture and whisk until completely melted and smooth. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
- While the chocolate is cooling, combine flour, salt, and baking soda together in a small bowl and whisk.
- When chocolate is cool, whisk in the sour cream.
- Beat the butter sugar and vanilla together in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until incorporated. The batter may seem separated and that is okay!
- Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture in three additions. Alternate flour with chocolate mixture, beginning and ending with flour.
- Scoop batter into cupcake liners. Bake until a toothpick comes out with some crumbs still attached; 15-20 minutes.
- Let the cupcakes cool completely.
To Make the Buttercream:
- Beat butter until light and fluffy on high speed with an electric mixer.
- Slowly add powdered sugar. Continue to beat until well combined.
- Add the Bailey’s a tablespoon at a time beating, and scraping the bowl down between each addition. Whip until light and fluffy. If your butter was not completely softened, this will take longer.
- Use a rubber spatula to put the frosting in a piping bag fitted with a tip of your choice. Press the buttercream all the way to the bottom of the bag making sure there are no air bubbles. Twist the top opening to ensure you don’t lose any of the deliciousness.
To Assemble the Cupcakes:
- Remove the center of the cupcake using a knife, a cupcake corer, or any other small, round object of your imagination. Fill the center with salted caramel. It should be thick like cooling lava. If it is too warm (read: runny) then it will just soak into your cake.
- Pipe (or spread) the frosting onto each cupcake. Sprinkle with green sanding sugar if desired!
- Store at room temperature for up to 3 days.
These look so scrumptious! I’m scheduling this to my pinboards asap. I want like three of those (because I have enough self control not to eat 12).
Thanks, Natasha! I love you site and I’m so glad you stopped by mine!
You have waaaay more self control than I do!!!
Can I substitute semi-sweet chocolate for bittersweet chocolate? Or will it make the cake too sweet?
That’s a hard question because everyone’s “too sweet” threshold is different! And the cocoa % varies widely between brands. I have found that Nestle’s Semi-Sweet is much sweeter than Ghirardelli, for example. I personally think it would taste just as good with semi-sweet. If you try it, come back and let me know what you thought!
I’ve featured tour amazing cupcakes on my blog, hoping that you don’t mind, but if you do, please contact me and I’ll remove it. All the best.
I don’t mind. 🙂 Thanks for linking-up and asking! I hope you enjoy them!
That gooey center though – amazing. Guinness has such a good flavor in desserts, I like it so much better than drinking it plain!
Agreed!!! But I do love a cold glass of Guinness on tap (preferably in Dublin) 😉
The Salted Caramel Filling link isn’t working. It says page cannot be found. Can someone fix it? I want to make these this week as they sound incredible!
Hi Shelley, I am so sorry about that! I’m not sure what happened but I fixed both links and just in case it’s easier, I have included it here too [Salted Caramel Sauce]
I hope you love them!
bailey’s irish cream buttercream sounds amazing!
Thanks, Dina!
Oh wow, those look delicious, love chocolate, love the caramel and especially the Bailey’s! 🙂 I am going to have to try this!!
Michael
I hope you do! They are so AMAZING!!!!
SHUT UP WITH THAT CARAMEL FILLING!!!! omg those pictures kill me!
Lol! I feel for you. I want one right now!