Bailey's Irish Cream Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

You heard me.

My boyfriend likes to make houseguests think I am an alcoholic by buying large quantities of girly liqueurs and not drinking them, ever. So I stole his Mint Chocolate Bailey's Irish Cream and made cupcakes with it. Oh yes. And so should you.



I adapted the recipe from http://www.bakingbites.com/.



Bailey's Mint Chocolate Irish Cream Cupcakes with Bailey's Frosting



1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup Chocolate Mint Bailey’s Irish Cream (or regular Bailey’s + 1/2 tsp peppermint extract)1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup Hershey's Cocoa



Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (the flour, baking powder and soda, salt, sugar, and cocoa). In another bowl, beat together the softened butter, eggs, vanilla, milk, and the Bailey's. Or you can be lazy like me and do it all on one bowl, wet ingredients first. Pour the batter ino muffin tins lines with cupcake wrappers and bake for 12-14 minutes.



While the cupcakes are baking, you can make your frosting. Nicole from Baking Bites goes the homemade route. Here's her frosting recipe:



4 tbsp butter, softened

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

2 tbsp milk or cream

1 tsp peppermint extract


But I'll be honest with you: I took a container of store-bought white frosting and mixed in Bailey's and cocoa. How much cocoa? Until it looked chocolatey. How much Bailey's? Until it looked dangerously thin. God, I'm such a cheat. It's almost too easy.



My one complaint with these cupcakes was that they were a little dense; I was hoping for a lighter, fluffier cupcake. Does anyone have any tips?