Irish Cream Cupcakes

I like a splash of Irish Cream in my coffee from time to time. Making cupcakes seemed like a good challenge as it can be tricky when using alcohol in a recipe. The taste can be overpowering or the batter can be too wet. My first batch was just that...wet. It looked great but when baked, the cupcakes cracked on top. A wet batter causes the outside to bake too quickly while the inside remains unbaked.

The batter looked great, tasted awesome, but in the end, it didn’t hold up during the baking process.

Everything looked good, but then...cracks.

How did that happen? I was out of instant coffee so I used finely ground espresso powder in a French Press to extract the coffee flavor. I used very little water, and even though I offset liquid in the recipe by removing 2 tablespoons of Carolans Irish Cream, it was still too wet.

I used a Celebrate It 1A piping tip (one of my favorites) to core the cupcakes. You can also use a melon baller, apple corer, knife or a star piping tip.

The sprinkles are from Sweet Tooth Fairy, found at Michaels.

So gooey and rich! Visit the post of my Marshmallow Buttercream Frosting recipe!