Irish Cream Chocolate Cupcakes
These adults-only Irish Cream Chocolate Cupcakes feature moist chocolate cake flavored with coffee and liqueur and a luxurious Bailey’s cream cheese frosting. They are perfect for St. Patrick’s Day or whenever you have a craving for Irish coffee or chocolate.
We love chocolate cake, but it can sometimes be one-note, too sweet, or even dry. To prevent these problems, we used our homemade chocolate cupcake recipe and made a few updates. We added warm coffee to the batter to amplify the bitter chocolate notes, and we poured in some Bailey’s Irish Cream for added flavor. Our chocolate cupcake batter also has sour cream, our not-so-secret ingredient that helps keep these handheld cakes moist and never dry.
Why You’ll Love These Cupcakes
- Irish coffee, but in cake form. If you’ve ever had an Irish coffee, you know that has the bitter flavor of coffee, the sharpness of Irish whiskey, and the balance of cool, lightly whipped cream. These cupcakes take it a step further and use Irish cream liqueur instead of plain ol’ whiskey, deep coffee-enhanced chocolate, and an Irish cream flavored frosting. They’re like an elevated version of an Irish coffee…that you can eat!
- Can be customized. Don’t drink coffee or alcohol? You can replace the coffee and/or liqueur with hot water instead. In our standard chocolate cupcake recipe, we actually don’t use coffee or Irish cream. We just do hot water for all of the liquid. If you don’t drink alcohol, you could also sub regular milk for the Irish cream in the frosting. It’ll be a little less “Irish cream” in flavor, but still a great chocolate cupcake.
- Easy to make (but not easy to stop eating!). We love making cupcakes because there isn’t any layering of cakes, no crumb coat, and no overly complex instructions. All you need to do is make the cake batter and bake it in cupcake liners, then make the easy cream cheese frosting to go on top. While we can attest to this being a fairly no-fuss recipe, we can’t guarantee that you won’t want to eat more than one cupcake at once.
Ingredients in the Irish Cream Chocolate Cupcakes
Chocolate Cake:
- Flour – this recipe calls for regular all-purpose flour. As with all of our baking recipes, we measure flour using the “spoon and level” method. Alternatively, you can weigh your flour (we provide the flour measurement in grams as well).
- Sea salt – all baked goods, even desserts, need a touch of salt for depth.
- Rising/leavening agents – this recipe uses both baking powder and baking soda. The baking soda reacts with the acid in the sour cream to help the cupcakes rise, and the baking powder provides additional lift.
- Dutch-process cocoa powder – we love the rich chocolate flavor of Dutch-processed cocoa powder. Unlike regular cocoa powder, Dutch-process is not acidic, so it doesn’t react with the baking soda. (This is another reason why we add baking powder too.)
- Coffee – we recommend using strong drip coffee instead of something more concentrated like espresso. You can use caffeinated or decaf coffee, as long as it’s hot.
- Bailey’s Irish Cream – these are boozy adult-only cupcakes because of this ingredient. Adding this liqueur to the batter gives these cupcakes a delicious, subtle Irish cream flavor.
- Sugars – we use both granulated and brown sugar in these cupcakes for the perfect level of sweetness.
- Oil – the secret to moist cake? Adding oil to the batter. Use a nice neutral flavored oil for best results.
- Eggs – you’ll need 2 eggs for this recipe. We know, we know. Eggs aren’t as cheap as they once were, but for 2 eggs, you’ll get 16 cupcakes! We think it’s pretty worth it.
- Sour cream – sour cream not only reacts with the baking soda to make these cupcakes light and fluffy, it also makes the cake super moist.
- Vanilla – vanilla extract provides balance and helps the chocolate flavors stand out even more.
Irish Cream Frosting:
- Cream cheese – we think cream cheese frosting is far superior to buttercream. This frosting uses less cream cheese than we usually go for, but just enough to give a subtle tang and creaminess.
- Butter – use a good quality butter here for best flavor. We like to use salted butter in our frosting to balance out the sweetness of the powdered sugar, but if you’d rather not, just be sure to add enough sea salt for balance.
- Powdered sugar – powdered sugar (also called confectioner’s sugar) makes the frosting sweet and also provides structure.
- Vanilla – just a little vanilla helps bring the flavors together.
- Bailey’s Irish Cream – instead of milk, we like to add Bailey’s to this frosting to give it the unmistakable flavor of Irish cream liqueur.
- Sea salt – if you’re using salted butter, you can back off a little on the added salt if you want. We like our desserts salty sweet though, so we are big fans of adding an extra touch here.
How to Make These Irish Cream Chocolate Cupcakes
To make these, first focus on getting the batter ready and baking the cupcakes, then put together the frosting.
Chocolate Cupcakes
Step 1: Start by preheating the oven to 350𝆩F and line a cupcake tray with cupcake liners.
Step 2: Mix the dry ingredients together (except for the cocoa powder) and set aside for later. (In other words, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together.)
Step 3: In a small bowl, pour the hot coffee over the cocoa powder and whisk until the cocoa completely combines with the coffee. This helps the cocoa bloom and the flavors intensify. The heat from the coffee reacts with the cocoa to extract more flavor, giving the cake batter stronger, more developed chocolate notes. Once the cocoa powder is thoroughly combined with the hot coffee, set it aside to cool.
Step 4: In a large bowl, beat the sugars and the oil together with an electric beater until the texture resembles wet sand.
Step 5: Add the cocoa-coffee mixture to the wet ingredients, then mix in the Bailey’s Irish Cream liqueur and the sour cream until they are thoroughly combined.
Step 6: Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla.
Step 7: Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Be careful not to overmix or you’ll develop the glutens in the flour, causing the cake to become gummy.
Step 8: Fill each cupcake liner about ⅔ of the way full with batter. This will be about 3 tablespoons per liner.
Step 9: Bake the cupcakes for 17-19 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out with only a few crumbs attached. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting them.
Irish Cream Frosting
Step 10: While the cupcakes cool, you can make the frosting. Mix the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, Irish cream, and salt with an electric beater until smooth.
Step 11: Frost the cooled cupcakes using an offset spatula or a piping bag. Optional: decorate with green sprinkles to make these extra festive.
Tips:
Irish Cream Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
Chocolate Cupcakes
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, (spoon & level method; about 125g)
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ½ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
- ½ cup hot strong coffee
- ¼ cup Bailey’s Irish Cream liqueur
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar, packed
- ⅓ cup neutral-flavored oil
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Irish Cream Frosting
- 6 oz cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup butter, (1 stick) softened
- 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 4 tbsp Bailey’s Irish Cream
- ¼ tsp sea salt, or more
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a cupcake tray with cupcake liners.
- Mix the dry ingredients together (except for the cocoa powder) in a bowl and set aside.1 cup all-purpose flour, ½ tsp sea salt, 1 tsp baking powder, ¼ tsp baking soda
- In a separate container, pour the hot coffee over the cocoa powder and whisk until the cocoa has completely mixed in. Set aside to cool.½ cup hot strong coffee, ½ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
- In a large bowl, mix the sugars and the oil together with an electric beater until the mixture resembles wet sand.½ cup granulated sugar, ½ cup brown sugar, ⅓ cup neutral-flavored oil
- Mix the cocoa mixture into the wet ingredients, then mix in the Bailey’s Irish Cream and the sour cream.¼ cup Bailey’s Irish Cream liqueur, ½ cup sour cream
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then mix in the vanilla.2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Add the dry ingredients and mix them with the wet ingredients (careful not to overmix or cake will be gummy).
- Fill each cupcake liner about ⅔ of the way full with batter (about 3 tbsp per liner).
- Bake for 17-19 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out with only a few crumbs attached. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting them.
- For the frosting, mix the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, Irish cream, and sea salt with an electric beater until smooth.6 oz cream cheese, ½ cup butter, 2 ½ cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, 4 tbsp Bailey’s Irish Cream, ¼ tsp sea salt
- Frost the cupcakes using an offset spatula or a piping bag. Decorate with green sprinkles, if desired.
