Irish Ice Cream Car Bombs

When Cupcake Project and Scoopalicious announced their annual ice cream contest cupcake, I was ready to revisit a favorite cupcake from the past year. My Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes were among the tastiest creations this year, but I thought I could make them even more delicious by adding ice cream.

I was right.

These are the perfect adult ice cream cupcake. The moist chocolate cupcakes are enhanced by rich ganache and decadent buttercream frosting with Irish Cream ice cream to cut through the sweetness like only ice cream can.

One of the best aspects of these cupcakes is they combine a room temperature cupcake, which always tastes better, with ice cream straight from the freezer. I love ice cream cupcakes, but this is the first version I've created that solves the problem of losing some of the cupcake flavor and texture due to freezing the entire cupcakes.

Irish Ice Cream Car Bomb Cupcakes
Cupcakes
1 cup Guinness stout
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream  
Whiskey Ganache
8 oz. dark chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 Tbsp. butter, at room temperature
2 tsp. whiskey
Irish Cream Frosting
2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
5 cups powdered sugar
6 Tbsp. Irish Cream
Ice Cream
Irish Cream Ice Cream
Optional Garnish
Small chocolate cups

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring the Guinness and butter to a simmer in a heavy, medium saucepan over medium heat.

Add the cocoa powder and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl to combine. Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sour cream on medium speed until combined. Add the Guinness-chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and beat just to combine. Reduce the speed to low, add the flour mixture and beat briefly. Using a rubber spatula, fold the batter until completely combined. Divide the batter among the cupcake liners.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 17-19 minutes. Cool the cupcakes on a rack.

To make the filling, finely chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then, using a rubber spatula, stir it from the center outward until smooth. Add the butter and whiskey and stir until combined. Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped.


Cut out the centers of the cooled cupcakes. I used a large decorating tip to cut out the top and a chopstick to pop the piece of cake out of the tip before I proceeded to the next one.

Transfer the ganache to a piping bag. Fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.

To make the frosting, use the whisk attachment of a stand mixer to whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Reduce the speed to medium-low and gradually add the powdered sugar until all of it is incorporated. Add the Irish Cream, increase the speed to medium-high and whip for another 2 to 3 minutes, until it is light and fluffy.

There are two options for assembling the cupcakes that I found worked well. Both involve piping a thick and tall ring of frosting around the outside edge of each cupcake. One option is to dollop a small scoop of ice cream into the frosting ring immediately prior to serving. The other option looks a bit fancier and uses mini-size chocolate cups. Place a chocolate cup into the center of the cupcake, and top with a small scoop of ice cream immediately prior to serving. The advantage of this version is that ice cream doesn't melt into the cupcake if it's not served instantaneously in addition to the textural crunch of the chocolate. Both are delicious, so pick your favorite or split the batch!

Makes 24 fantastically delicious cupcakes. Don't take my word for it. Try these!