St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes!

UPDATE: I realize I forgot to mention this at first, but this is by no means my new favorite chocolate cupcake recipe. My faves are still Martha's One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes and Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cupcakes!

I know I promised you Irish Cream Cupcakes (winners of the poll) for St. Patrick's Day, but these are kinda, sorta, maybe just Devil's Food Cupcakes with Bailey's stirred into the batter... But SO WHAT! They're reallllllly good! I used the recipe for Devil's Food Cake in The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook (which I just recently bought because I love their baking book so much! PS: the Spanish rice and the smothered pork chops are DE-LISH-US!). I removed a bit of the water (about 3 tablespoons) from the recipe and replaced it with a minibottle of Bailey's Mint Chocolate Irish Cream. You couldn't detect the mint flavor at all, but that was okay because I didn't want them to be minty anyway! I frosted them with vanilla SMBC (which I dyed green, because it's the easiest way to celebrate the holiday!). Then I drizzled them with some of that Wilton candy melt stuff and topped each one with a gold dragee.. Wow, Cassie, way to get festive! Thank you, thank you, I know!! :D :D I gave one to my dad, the taste-tester, and he said they were "killer." Although I believe you could pipe some SMBC onto a dog turd and my dad would love it... WHAT!? No... I didn't say that! Anyway, the cupcakes are good, you'll have to trust me. ;)

I love it when they all look perfect! And they taste GREAT!

Recipe for vanilla SMBC

DEVIL'S FOOD CAKE (halved from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook)
Makes 12-14 cupcakes

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons boiling water
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon instant espresso or instant coffee
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature (*original recipe calls for 3 eggs*)
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.

2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk the boiling water, choco­late, cocoa powder, and instant espresso together until smooth.

3. Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 6 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until incorporated, scraping down the bowl and beaters as needed. Beat in the sour cream and vanilla.

4. Reduce the speed to low and beat in one-third of the flour mixture. Beat in half of the chocolate mixture. Repeat with half of the remaining flour mixture, then the remaining chocolate mixture, and finally the remaining flour mixture.

5. Give the batter a final stir using a rubber spatula to make sure it's thoroughly combined. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared pans and smooth the tops. Bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out with a few crumbs attached, 15 to 20 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.

6. Let the cupcakes cool in the pans on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

Overall rating on a scale of 1-5
Moistness: 4
Tenderness: 5
Frosting: 5