Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Bailey's Frosting are a great St. Patricks Day dessert to celebrate the holiday. The recipe is easy and the Guinness chocolate cupcakes with light and fluffy Bailey's frosting are sure to please everyone.
The cupcakes are a great choice when you prefer to skip all the green shenanigans and go for real Irish flavors. Serve these Guinness chocolate cupcakes with an Irish coffee and really spoil yourself.
The amount of alcohol is minimal, as most of it is from the beer in the cupcakes which will bake off, like with my Guinness Bread. There is only 2 tablespoons total of Irish Cream in the frosting. So no one should get drunk on these...like my Still Kickin' Bailey's Pound Cake might.
If you prefer a St. Patrick's day cupcake without any booze at all, try my Green Velvet Cupcakes or Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes.
How to Make Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Bailey's Frosting
Now let's make some of these moist and delicious cupcakes!
The recipe makes a dozen chocolate cupcakes.
Ingredients for the Cupcakes
Here is everything you need to make these delicious Guinness Chocolate cupcakes.
Chocolate Cupcakes
- ⅓ cup unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 1 cup Sugar
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 6 oz Guinness beer (half a bottle)
- ¼ cup melted Butter
- ½ tablespoon Vanilla
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup Sour Cream
Baileys Frosting
- ¼ cup Butter
- 2 cups Powdered Sugar (confectioners sugar)
- 2 tablespoon Bailey's Irish Cream
Holiday sprinkles are optional, but make these cupcakes party perfect!
Directions
Start off by preheating the oven to 350 degrees F. Place 12 cupcake liners in a muffin/ cupcake tin and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl whisk together the dry ingredients for cupcakes.
Mix in the wet ingredients: beer, melted butter, vanilla egg and sour cream, Combine until smooth to make the Chocolate Guinness Cupcake batter.
Pour the batter into the cupcake liners and bake for 20-25 minutes (until a pick pulls clean from center).
Mix the ingredients for the Bailey's Frosting together in a medium bowl. Pipe it on top the cupcakes once they are completely cooled to room temperature on a wire rack.
Alcohol-free Frosting Options
As I've mentioned the small amount of alcohol in the beer will bake-off, but obviously that is not the case with the icing.
One solution is to use Irish Cream flavored creamer in the icing in place of the real thing. Another is to use a cream cheese frosting on the Guinness cupcakes. Here is a simple frosting recipe that makes enough for the 12 cupcakes.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened (½ stick)
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 2 cups confectioners sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Make sure the butter and cream cheese are soft, then simply beat the ingredients together until you have a nice fluffy icing. A stand mixer is ideal for this.
Pipe onto room temperature cupcakes.
Bonus: St Patricks Day Cupcake Toppers
Here are some free printable cupcake toppers to make these more festive.
Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Bailey's Frosting
Ingredients
Cupcake Batter
- ⅓ cup unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 1 cup granulated Sugar
- 1 cup Flour
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 6 oz Guinness stout beer
- ¼ cup melted Butter (unsalted)
- ½ tablespoon Vanilla
- 1 Eggs
- ¼ cup full fat sour cream
Bailey's Frosting
- ¼ cup unsalted Butter
- 2 cup Powdered Sugar
- 2 tablespoon Bailey's Irish Cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Whisk together cocoa, sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
- In another bowl, combine the Guiness, melted butter and vanilla.
- Beat in eggs and sour cream until combined and smooth.
- Slowly add dry ingredients into the wet mixture.
- Line muffin pan with paper liners.
- Fill each about ¾ full.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely to room temperature.
- In a medium mixing bowl, cream butter until fluffy and slowly add the powdered sugar.
- Mix in Bailey's until right consistency is achieved.
- Transfer the frosting to a piping bag and frost cupcakes.
- Dust with a little cocoa powder if desired.
Rebecca Orr says
Seriously??!! These looks delicious. My mouth is watering.
Sandra D says
The frosting is definitely wrong. It's totally power.
Robin Gagnon says
For a non-alcoholic version of the frosting grab some Irish Cream non-dairy creamer.
Jessica says
My cakes came out super flat. Any ideas what went wrong. The only sub i made was yogurt for the sour cream.
Robin Gagnon says
Hi Jessica,
This is a contributor recipe, not one I developed myself. Looking it over more closely a 1/2 tsp of baking soda seems a bit low for rising cupcakes. I added a tsp of baking powder to the recipe, as that would be standard for a batch of cupcakes this size.
Brittany says
Love this cupcake. The cake is super moist, but I would however like a bit more Guinness flavor. The frosting is delicious. The Irish cream flavor really shines.
maria says
Best GC ever!