and for st. patrick's day: cabbage, bacon, guinness, cupcakes!!

and for st. patrick’s day: cabbage, bacon, guinness, cupcakes!!

happy st. patrick’s day everyone!

for today i have one and a half recipes. the first one is: boiled irish bacon and cabbage with mashed potatoes!

and the second and more detailed one is for irish car bomb cupcakes!

let’s start with the bacon and cabbage. knowing that st. patrick’s day was coming soon i excitedly suggested to the IM i made corned beef and cabbage and he proceded to tell me that in ireland the tradition is to make irish bacon and cabbage instead. every where i’ve looked or any irish person i ask says the same thing.

there are a few theories as to why irish-americans eat corned beef instead of bacon. one of them is that they could not find their traditional irish bacon in new york and decided to use corned beef as a substitute. another theory is that corned beef is associated to the irish because back in the early part of the 20th century it was made popular by new york bars at lunchtime. back then, bars offered a ‘free lunch’ to the irish construction workers and in order to get the free lunch they had to buy a couple of beers or shots of whiskey. salon.com has an interesting article about this.

this past sunday, the IM took me to the butcher blockin queens to buy the bacon. we went early on sunday morning and there were barely any other patrons in the store. we bought about 4 pounds of bacon for dinner that night. we had not even gotten to the car when i was already googling how to make irish boiling bacon. i was very pleased with the results: boil the bacon (30 minutes per pound) and then boil the cabbage in the bacon water (about 15-20 minutes).

IM informed me we absolutely had to have mashed potatoes as well. so we did. we paired everything with mustard and a dark beer. that dinner was absolutely delicious! it was so filling and warm, it had a very home-y feeling.

and now, for dessert…

have you ever had an irish car bomb drink (icb)? it involves 3/4 pint of guinness, 1/2 shot of bailey’s irish cream and 1/2 shot of jameson whiskey. to make it you have to add the bailey’s to the jameson in a shot glass, layering the baileys on the bottom. then you drop that glass into the pint with the guinness and chug. if you don’t drink it quickly it will curdle and taste gross, so chug them quickly!

here is a way to have the irish car bomb taste but no need to rush to drink it. i took most of the recipe from smitten kitchenand tweeked a few things as needed (ie. i did not have bittersweet chocolate). these are irish car bomb cupcakes!

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
this recipe has a ton of ingredients so i will separate them in three to avoid confusion.

for the guinness cupcakes:
1 cup of guiness stout
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

for the ganache filling:
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate - i used semi-sweet because that is all we had in the supermarket by my house. those who tasted the cupcakes have said only good things so i am going to guess it did not make a difference.
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 to 2 teaspoons of jameson whiskey

for the frosting:
3 cups of confections sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tbsp of Baileys
2 tbsp of heavy cream

INSTRUCTIONS:
start by bringing the guinness and butter to a simmer.

beat the eggs and sour cream to blend.

in a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients: salt, baking soda, sugar and flour.

check on the stout.

once the butter has melted, add the cocoa powder slowly.

whisk it in until the mixture is smooth.

add the chocolate and guiness mixture tot he eggs and sour cream mixture.

mix them slightly, only to blend.

add the dry ingredients bit by beat and mix until combined.

this is what it should look like.

pour them into cupcake liners. only fill them up about 3/4ths of the way. bake for about 15-17 minutes at 350°. turn them halfway through the baking so they bake evenly.

this is what mine looked like at 7 minutes:

they will be baked if when poked with a toothpick the toothpick comes out clean.

let them cool down on a wire rack or a plate if you are like me and don’t have a wire rack.

while they cool, work on the ganache center.

heat up 3/4 cup of heavy cream.

pour that heavy cream on top of the chocolate chips to melt them. use a bigger bowl than i did.

let the chocolate and cream cool down slightly.

then (after you switch to a bigger bowl) whisk the cream and chocolate together to mix. add 2 tablespoons of butter.

whisk the butter in the ganache and add the whiskey.

my friend tom came to help me bake as you can see, he has a heavy hand when serving whiskey… no wonder we are friends.

whisk the whiskey in and let the ganache cool for 5 minutes or so.

while the ganache is cooling down use an apple corer to make holes in the center of the cupcakes. don’t go all the way down. i don’t have an apple corer so i used a mix of pipping bag tips and fingers. i promised i washed my hands well.

next, fill in the cupcakes with the ganache.

(mad props to tom for taking the pictures!)

fill them all the way up.

and now, for the baileys frosting.

whip the butter in a mixer. before i continue i must say, i just love how much butter goes into this dish!

moving on, whisk the butter.

add 3 cups of confectioners’ sugar. add the sugar slowly. i am talking about ‘2 tablespoons at a time’ slowly. this will make the frosting fluffier than if you just dump the 3 cups in there. besides it is less messy, have you ever tried dumping powered sugar? yeah, no.