Tyler and Lindsey's Going Away Party

Recently, our friends Tyler and Lindsey had a going away party and I decided to bring some cupcakes. I wanted to use the opportunity to experiment with flavors I hadn't used yet so Justin and I decided on German Chocolate Cupcakes, Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes, and Nutella Cupcakes. They all turned out good with a few kinks to work out, but every one loved them!


The Nutella Cupcakes were the first ones we made. I used my Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes recipe as the base. After filling each liner 1/2 full, I added 1/2 tsp of Nutella in the center of each liner like this:

I put them in the toaster oven for about 30 minutes. While those were baking I prepared the Nutella frosting which is classic buttercream frosting with 2 tablespoons of Nutella blended in at the end. The finished product looked like this:

The only problem I encountered with these cupcakes is because the vanilla cake recipe is so thin, the Nutella sank instead of baking throughout the cake. I plan on experimenting with different cakes to correct the problem. For now I have been using this recipe without any Nutella in the cake and they have been a big hit :)

The second cupcakes were the Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes. For these cakes, I used a recipe I use for my Oreo Cupcakes that can be found here. To make them Guinness cupcakes, I simply changed the amount of buttermilk to 3/4 cup and used 3/4 cup of Guinness.  Once they cooled, I cut a whole in the center for the ganache filling:

To make the Ganache you use 8 ounces of baking chocolate, 2/3 cups heavy cream, and 1-2 tablespoons of Irish Whiskey. You heat the milk then pour it over the chocolate, whisking it together until all the chocolate is melted. Once you finish this, the whiskey can be added as an option. Once the ganache is completely cooled you can pour it into the cake.

For the frosting, I used my Bailey's Irish Cream frosting which is two cups of powdered sugar, 1/2 cup butter, and 2-3 tablespoons of Bailey's. Beat the butter and then slowly add the powdered sugar. Once this is completely incorporated, add the Bailey's and mix together.

And Viola! You have Chocolate Guiness Cupcakes with a Whiskey Ganache Filling topped with Bailey's Irish Cream frosting :)

The final cupcake that we made was the German Chocolate Cupcake . Because we were short on time, I used our Coca-Cola Cupcake recipe as the base for the cake. After that, we used Martha Stewart's recipe. The final product looked like this:

 

They were a huge at the party and I only had a few Guinness Cupcakes left after the fact! Here are some photos from the party :)