When did "grown up" start meaning "booze-filled"?

This seems to be the time of year when people have birthdays. I don’t know what was happening in January and February (oh wait, Valentine’s… makes sense), but birthday’s have been popping up all over the place! So this past week a friend of mine celebrated his and I wanted to bake him birthday cupcakes. Since we are (unfortunately) all getting a little older, I decided to make a grown up cupcakes. And what was my first thought for a “grown up” cupcake? Let’s put booze in them!

Now, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it works for this story. I decided to try making a stout and Irish cream cupcake. This idea had been floating around in my head for a while, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity! I found a recipe from the Cupcake Wars website and decided to use Guinness and Bailey’s as my alcohols of choice.

I’ve always been a huge fan of Bailey’s; it’s perfect in hot chocolate, coffee, milk, cheesecake – anything really. Guinness on the other hand, I’m iffy about. I find it tastes a little too bitter, so I was worried the cupcakes would turn out that way too. And who wants a bitter cupcake? Here’s the recipe:

Guinness and Bailey’s Cupcakes

Taken from the Cupcake Wars website (Chocolate Stout and Irish Cream Liqueur Cupcakes)

Makes about 24 cupcakes

1 1/2 cups Guinness

4 oz butter

3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder

2 cups dark brown sugar

3/4 cup sour cream

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 tsp baking soda

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a cupcake or muffin pan with 24 regular-size cupcake liners.
2. Place the stout and butter in a medium-size saucepan and whisk together on medium heat until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat. Sift the cocoa powder into a medium-size bowl and add the sugar. Slowly whisk into the stout mixture. In a small bowl, combine the sour cream, eggs, and vanilla and lightly whisk until smooth. Add this mixture to the saucepan and whisk thoroughly (it may appear lumpy). Sift the flour and baking soda together in another small bowl and then add it to the saucepan, mixing a final time until the color is even.
3. Fill the cupcake liners three-quarters full with batter and bake until the cakes spring back after touching, about 27 minutes. Cool the cupcakes in their pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Irish Liqueur Frosting

1/2 pound butter

2 tbsps Baileys

2 cups confectioners' sugar (maybe more – if you find your frosting tastes too buttery)

Directions

1. Cream the butter in the bowl of an electric stand mixer until pale. Turn the mixer to low speed and add the Irish liqueur in a steady stream. Slowly add the confectioners' sugar and continue beating until a creamy consistency is achieved.
2. Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes.

The recipes are really straightforward and easy to follow. I didn’t alter them at all, and they turned out wonderfully. The cake itself was nice and moist, and they didn’t have the bitter taste of Guinness. Then again, on their own, the cupcakes didn’t have much taste at all. Maybe they needed more cocoa (I’ll have to try the recipe again maybe with more cocoa)? However, the frosting provided a nice flavor to compliment the cupcake and wasn’t too sweet. I found the frosting did taste a little buttery, so I added a bit more icing sugar, so you can adjust the amount of sugar to your taste.

I also topped them with a little grated dark chocolate just to make them look pretty! Even guys need pretty birthday cupcakes!

In the end, I don’t know if anyone actually thought of them as “grown up”, but they seemed to enjoy them! And heck, if growing up means eating these delicious cupcakes again (or eating any dessert with booze in it), I’ll do it!