St. Patty's Day Treat For Grown-Ups: Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

A few weeks back I got the idea to make some Irish Car Bomb cupcakes, after making a Stout Chocolate Cake from Smitten Kitchen for a friends birthday. I love Irish Car Bombs and couldn't help but think cupcakes with irish crème filling and a whiskey glaze sounded pretty awesome.

Since it was so close to St. Patty's day, I waited it out and brought them in as a holiday treat for my co-workers. I wasn't sure how the whiskey glaze would go over, I even make these back-up cupcakes: the same stout cake with a simple irish crème frosting.

Both were gobbled up,but the back-up's were totally unnecessary. These Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes were a hit! They were also clearly more popular then the back-ups.

Stout Cake – makes 24 cupcakes

1 cup stout beer

1 cup/2 sticks unsalted butter

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 ½ tsp baking soda

¾ tsp salt

2 eggs

2/3 cup sour cream

Irish Crème Filling

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 Tbsp powdered sugar

1/3 cup Irish Crème

Whiskey Glaze

2 Tbsp Butter

2 cup powdered sugar

1/3 cup Whiskey (Irish whiskey would be most appropriate, but honestly it's not what I used)

The directions on smitten kitchen say to bring the beer and butter to a simmer over medium heat, the whisk in cocoa until smooth and cool. The First time I made this cake I didn't notice this complicated step and just mixed everything together. This time I did it correctly. I am not convinced this makes a difference. Proceed according to your own discretion. I probably won't bother to do it again.

Whisk together dry ingredients. Add eggs, sour cream and butter and beer or chocolate mixture depending on how you did it. Mix just until combined.

Fill muffin tins ¾ or a little more full. I recommend using papers because this cake is moist and can be hard to work with if it's not wrapped in something.

Bake at 350º for 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Meanwhile, beak together filling ingredients until soft peaks form. Refrigerate until ready to use.

When cupcakes are cool make a slice in the top with a knife. Fill a pastry bag with flavored whipped cream, using a small tip. Insert in the slot made in the top of the cupcake. Fill slowly, just until cupcake starts to spread open a bit like it might break in half if you keep going.

Simply mix together ingredients for whisky glaze with a spoon until combined*. Spread or decoratively drizzle over the cake tops.

*Warning: This glaze will smell pretty strong. The end product DOES taste like whiskey, but in a good way, so don't be afraid.

(For the back-up cupcake frosting I simply beat together 2 Tbsp softened butter with 2 oz softened cream cheese and 2/3 cup powdered sugar. I mixed this with 2 cups of the same whipped cream mixture I used to fill the Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes. This produced a very soft and light frosting. I dropped a spoonful on each cupcake (no filling) and spread it a little bit by gently pressing with the back of a spoon.)

C-fun's Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cake Mix Cookies

I have a friend I like to call C-fun. In my opinion, she has a few signature desserts. They have a theme: chocolate and peanut butter.

Chocolate and peanut butter pie, chocolate covered peanut butter truffles, and the cake mix peanut butter chocolate chip cookies I'm writing about now.

She says she likes this recipe because it's consistent, the cookies always come out good. I like it because it makes a softer peanut butter cookie that doesn't crumble into a million pieces as soon as you take a bite. Plus it is super easy because the cake mix means very little measuring.

But I warn you, they are addictive.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cake Mix Cookies

1 box white cake mix

2 eggs

1/3 cup water

¼ cup softened butter

15oz jar creamy peanut butter

12oz chocolate chips (I used ½ milk, ½ semi-sweet)

Pre-heat oven to 375º

Scramble eggs with water

Whip to combine with butter

Add half the box of cake mix and peanut butter and beat until light and fluffy

Add second half of cake mix and stir until mostly combined

Add chocolate chips and continue stirring until thoroughly combined

Drop onto greased cookie sheet by rounded teaspoonfuls (I used a medium cookie scoop)

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until done

Cool on cookie sheet about 5 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack

New Toy. New Recipe. Chocolate Pudding Pie.

I got a new toy.

I know it a simple little thing, but up to now I have been mostly working with nothing more then a pastry blender and a rolling pin. (I did have to buy a food mill for the grape pies but so far that hasn't actually been useful for anything else).

I have been wanting an electric blender for awhile; however I am also one of the cheapest people alive (except when buying jeans. You find a great pair of jeans and you better buy them, regardless of the price.) But it turns out you can get this set for under $10! So I went ahead and made the purchase.

In celebration, I had to make something that involved whipped cream. Homemade whipped cream was definitely my primary motivation for desiring the electric blender.

Lucky for me, the Smitten Kitchen blog recently posted a chocolate pudding pie that I really wanted to make.

When I previously stated that I had never been exposed to pie making, that was a BIT of a stretch. Chocolate pudding pie is the only kind of pie I have ever seen my mother "make". By "make" I mean dump some out of a Jell-O box chocolate pudding into a pre-made graham cracker crust.

In contrast, this pie is the from-scratch variety and I couldn't help but wonder how from scratch pudding compares to the box. I put it in a crust I made from pecan sandies. And then I topped it with homemade whipped cream.

Honestly, I can't remember how the Jell-O pudding pie tastes to compare. But this one was delicious. And really not that much more effort then the box kind, cuz lets be serious its constantly stirring the heating milk that takes the most effort and either way you still have to do that.

Do This To Make Your Own:


1/4 cup cornstarch

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided


3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder


1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole milk


4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (not more than 60% cacao), finely chopped


1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


1 cup chilled heavy cream

Prepared 9" crust, any kind that sounds good to you

Whisk together cornstarch, 1/3 cup sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a 2-quart heavy saucepan, then gradually whisk in milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly, then boil, whisking, two minutes (mixture will thicken). Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate and vanilla until smooth.

Pour filling into cooled shell and chill, its surface covered with wax paper or plastic wrap if you want to prevent a skin from forming, until cold, at least two hours. (I used plastic wrap and found I needed to re-situate it after about an hour, because it formed pockets of condensation when it was still hot hat I couldn't completely flatten. It still seemed to prevent the skin from forming though.)

Beat cream with remaining two tablespoons sugar until it just holds soft peaks. Now you have homemade whipped cream! Spread it across the top of the pie. (Bonus: this hid the imperfection in my crust edge and pudding top.)

One more pic. Look at those pretty layers.