Bailey's Irish Cream Cupcakes

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day. I made the mistake of being in Chicago yesterday. If you've never had this experience, let me just say don't do it. It was CRAZY. I decided that I really hate drunk green people.

Even though I was away from home, I still found time to make some special treats for the day. For the adults, I made these Bailey's Irish Cream Cupcakes. I got the recipe from TidyMom and let me just say that they were absolutely amazing.

Here's how I made them:

Ingredients

For the Cupcake:

• 1 Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
• 3 Large Eggs
• 1/2 cup melted butter (not margarine)
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/3 cup Bailey's Irish Cream

For the Chocolate-Caramel Ganache:

• 10 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 3.5 ounces caramels (about 10-12 candies unwrapped)
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

For Bailey's Buttercream:

• 1 cup shortening
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 8 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3-1/2 cup Bailey's Irish Cream
• 1/4-1/3 heavy whipping cream

Instructions

For the Bailey's Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a large mixing bowl, add cake mix, eggs, butter, Bailey's, and milk. Mix on low until combined. Then mix on high for 2 minutes. Pour batter into paper lined cupcake pans. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool completely.

For Chocolate Caramel Ganache:
Place chopped chocolate in medium bowl and set aside. Using a medium sauce pan, heat whipping cream and caramels over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until caramels have melted completely. Pour caramel cream over chocolate and stir until melted.

For Bailey's Buttercream
In large mixing bowl, cream shortening and vanilla for 2-4 minutes. Add in powdered sugar, one cup at a time. Combine Bailey's with cream in measuring cup and slowly add to sugar mixture, using more cream for a creamier consistency and less for a stiff consistency.

To Assemble:
Using a sharp knife, cut out a cone shaped section of the cupcake and set it next to each cupcake. Fill each cupcake hole with ganache. Cut the top off of each cone and cap the ganache hole in each cupcake. Top cupcakes with the buttercream. Garnish with remaining ganache.

I was able to take the cupcakes with me to Chicago. My friends and I enjoyed them on the train ride up and in our hotel. Even though the streets were full of crazy drunk people, I did make my way through them and got to see the green Chicago River.

To quote Marshall Biggs in The Fugitive, "If they can dye the river green today, why can't they dye it blue the other 364 days of the year?"