Description
Vegan chocolate boozy cupcakes, a cocktail transformed into a delicious cupcake and spiked with a bit of alcohol. Don’t be fooled by the looks of these cupcakes, they’re made with a Guinness chocolate cupcake, Jameson whiskey ganache filling, and topped with a delicious Baileys Almande buttercream frosting.
Ingredients
Scale
Cupcakes:
- 3/4 cup (180g) – Guinness, or any stout beer
- 1/4 cup (60g) – vegetable oil
- 1/3 cup (30g) – Dutch-processed cocoa powder, see notes
- 1/4 cup (60g) – non-dairy milk, lukewarm, I used Soy
- 1 teaspoon (10g) – apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp (5g) – vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoon (29g) – maple syrup
- 1 2/3 cup (210g) – all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned, and leveled
- 3/4 cup (150g) – granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon (8g) – baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (3g) – baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon (1g) – sea salt
Ganache
- 1 bar – Baker’s Baking Bar, chopped
- 1/4 cup – non-dairy milk, I used soy
- 1 tablespoon – vegan butter
- 2–3 tablespoons – Jameson, or any whiskey
- 1/2 teaspoon – vanilla extract
Frosting
- 2 sticks – vegan butter, softened at room temperature
- 3 ½ – 4 cups (420g – 500g) – powdered sugar, sifted
- 3 tablespoons – Baileys Almande
Equipment:
- Food scale, highly recommend, see notes
- 12-cup cupcake pan
- Cupcake liners
- Heatproof Mixing Bowls
- Measuring spoons
- Whisk
- Rubber spatula
- Stand mixer or electric hand mixer
- Saucepan
- Small knife or apple corer
- Piping bag
- Piping tip
Instructions
Cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit, and prep a 12-cup cupcake pan with liners.
- In a small saucepan, combine the Guinness and vegetable oil and place over medium heat. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and allow the mixture to simmer for about 2-3 minutes.
- Add the Dutch-processed cocoa powder to the saucepan and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Remove from the heat, and set aside to let it cool slightly.
- Next, combine non-dairy milk, make sure it’s lukewarm, and apple cider vinegar. Mix and set aside for 5 minutes, this will be your buttermilk, it will curdle and thicken slightly.
- In a large bowl, sift your flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk together to combine.
- Pour your buttermilk into the Guinness mixture, along with vanilla extract and maple syrup. Whisk to combine.
- Combine wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and with a rubber spatula, gently fold them together. Careful not to over mix.
- Fill your cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full.
- Bake the cupcakes for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Remove cupcakes from the oven, and let them cool in the pan for 10 minutes. After, remove from the tin and let them fully cool on a cooling rack before assembling.
Frosting:
- Place the softened butter in a large bowl. Using a stand mixer or electric hand mixer, whip the butter on high speed for 2-3 minutes, until you get a light and creamy texture.
- On low, gradually add the powdered sugar until it has been fully incorporated.
- Next, add in the Baileys, increase the speed to medium-high, and whip for another 2-3 minutes until it is light and fluffy. If the buttercream seems a little too soft gradually add more powdered sugar until you get a thick, pipeable consistency. If it’s too soft, it won’t hold its shape.
Ganache:
- Add the chopped chocolate and non-dairy milk to a heatproof bowl. Heat it in the microwave in 30-second increments, while stirring in between. Stop when you get a smooth chocolate texture.
- Add the whiskey and vanilla extract and stir until combined. Set aside until ready to use, but don’t let it get too cool as it will harden and it will be difficult to pour into the cupcakes.
Assembly:
- Working with one cupcake at a time, core the center of the cupcake with an apple corer, small cookie cutter, or knife. Save the core of the cake, as this will serve as your “cover”.
- Carefully spoon or pipe in enough of the spiked ganache into the center of the cupcake. Take the core of the cake and place it over the top of the ganache. Repeat for the remaining cupcakes.
- Next, fit your favorite piping tip into a large piping bag and fill it with enough frosting. Pipe a nice swirl over the cupcakes.
- Top sprinkle some green sprinkles on top, and serve and enjoy!
Notes
- Measure your flour properly. A common reason baked goods fail is incorrectly measured flour. I always recommend using a scale for accuracy when baking. This greatly improves your chance for success and lessens room for error. My recipes are 100% tested in grams.
- If you’re measuring by cups, avoid scooping the measuring cup directly into the flour. This tends to pack the flour into the cup, resulting in too much flour and a very dense or gummy finished product. Instead, aerate your flour (fluff it with a fork or spoon) and then spoon it into your measuring cups, leveling it with your finger or the back of a butter knife. Keep in mind though, this method is not guaranteed to be accurate.
- Watch this video from King Arthur on how to properly measure your flour if you don’t have a food scale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUSovVHpqsU
- Barnivore.com! This will sound weird at first, but did you know that some alcohol aren’t vegan friendly? For more information, check out Barnivore.com! You can search up any kind of booze you like and it’ll tell you if it’s vegan or not.
- Guinness. Yes, Guiness, the stout, it enhances the chocolate flavor, you won’t actually taste it in the final product. However, if you don’t want to use it, add the same amount of freshly brewed coffee.
- Use Dutch-process cocoa. It gives this recipe its delicious mellow chocolate flavor. If you don’t want to use it, you can easily swap it for natural cocoa powder.
- Don’t let the ganache cool too much. Once it cools down, it’ll be hard to pipe it into the cupcakes. So do this part last, and right before you are ready to assemble.
- Allow the cupcakes to be completely cool before you start to assemble. Otherwise, everything will start to melt!
- Substitutions. Buying alcohol can get expensive, so if you want to use whatever stout or whiskey you have, you can most certainly do that.
Keywords: vegan, vegan dessert, vegan cupcakes, dessert, cupcakes, vegan boozy cupcakes, chocolate, irish car bomb, holiday recipe, vegan recipe
