Dirty Girl Scout Cupcakes

A dirty girl scout is, of course, a shot consisting of Vodka, Kahlua, Creme de Menthe and Irish Cream.  The cupcake version features a mocha cupcake filled with mint-chocolate ganache topped off with Irish Cream Frosting.  The cupcakes won't get you liquored up but they do taste mighty good!

These were inspired by Smitten Kitchen's Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes.

You will need the following ingredients:

Mocha Cupcakes
1 cup extra strong coffee
1 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Mint Chocolate Filling
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon mint extract

Irish Cream Frosting
8 cups confectioners sugar
1 stick unsalted butter & 8 oz cream cheese at room temperature
6 tablespoons Irish Cream

Necessary:

Cupcake Liners
Pan
Measuring Cups & Spoons
Assorted Bowls
A Small Sharp Knife
Hand Mixer
Rubber Spatula

Optional but Handy:

1 inch cookie cutter or cupcake corer
#20 disher
stand mixer
squeeze bottle
icing bag w/ 1M tip

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two cupcake pans with cupcake liners. Simmer coffee and butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Allow to cool. In a large bowl, mix the remaining dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda, and  salt) together. In a separate bowl,  beat eggs and sour cream together. Add the coffee mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Combine completely with rubber spatula. Fill each cup 1/2 - 2/3 full (use a #20 disher¹ if you have one) and bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, 15-18 minutes.  Depending on you oven you may have to rotate your pans once during baking.  Remove from pan and cool cupcakes completely on a rack.

If you have a whisk that is up to the task you can use it instead of the hand mixer.

Do not dump the hot butter-coffee mixture into the egg mixture or you risk scrambled eggs.

1. Disher is fancy restaurant supply talk for an ice cream scoop.  #20 refers to its size.

Now it's time to make some ganache.  Don't be alarmed, ganache is just chocolate and cream and is very simple to make.

Place chocolate in a heat proof bowl, bring cream to a simmer and pour over chocolate.  Allow the mixture to rest for a minute or two and then add your mint extract and stir until smooth.  If all the chocolate has not melted you can place the bowl over a pan of simmering water or zap it in the microwave (while watching very closely and for short periods of time) and stir again.  Allow the ganache to cool and then pour into your squeeze bottle.

I usually put the chocolate into a stainless bowl and put the bowl on top of a simmering pot of water (not touching the water) and leave it there while the cream is heating and while the chocolate is hanging out in the hot cream.

You can use whatever chocolate you like for the ganache.  I usually use Ghirardelli's Bittersweet chips but my local store was out so I used regular ol' Nestle's semi-sweet. 

Add the butter and cream cheese to your mixing bowl and mix until fluffy.  Slowly add powdered sugar and then Irish Cream.  Towards the end you may have to alternate between Irish Cream and sugar.  Cover and set aside until ready to frost cupcakes.

It is time to assemble your army of dirty girl scout cupcakes.

First we need to make room for the ganache.  You can use a one inch cookie cutter, cupcake corer, grapefruit knife or any other small sharp knife to cut a core from each of the cupcakes.  If your house is on the warm side, you may need to refrigerate the cupcake to firm them up before coring.

Now that they have all been cored, it's time to fill them with the mint chocolate ganache.  If you're using a squeeze bottle, just squeeze away and fill each cupcake.  If you don't have a squeeze bottle, use a spoon and carefully spoon the ganache into each cupcake.  You may have to come back and add a little ganache to each cupcake, it tends to settle.

Finally, it is time for the frosting.  If you are using a frosting bag, attach the 1M tip, fill the bag and frost away.  You can also simply spread the frosting on with any old knife you have handy.

You're done! Enjoy your dirty girl scout cupcakes.