Pot O'Gold Cupcakes

Tomorrow is St Patrick's Day and we will have our traditional corned beef, potatoes, and something green - I love cabbage but the rest of the family does not.  Somehow bok choy seems a little strange for an Irish dinner, but I just go with the flow.

Recently there have been some wonderful recipes for  cupcakes with a St. Patick's Day theme -  Irish Coffee Cupcakes by 52 Kitchen Adventures, St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes by Susi's Kochen Und Backen Adventures, and Guinness Cupcakes by My Baking Addiction, to name a few.  All sound so good, and I have bookmarked them so that I can try them soon.  I couldn't decide on one, so I took a little something from all of them and came up with Pot O'Gold Cupcakes.

As much as I love chocolate cupcakes I wanted to make a basic yellow cupcake, so I used a tried and true recipe from Martha Stewart. A good friend of mine brought back a jar of Ladurée Caramel au beurre salé for me when she went to Paris last year, and I have been saving it for a special occasion.  I am always torn when I get gifts like this because on the one hand want to use it, but I also want to save it because I can't replace it.  I decided that this was a good time to break that seal and enjoy the contents.  The caramel is so thick and delicious, so after I made the cupcakes I cut a small portion from the top and filled them with the caramel.  A buttercream frosting seemed to be the perfect topping, so I went with it, and added Bailey's® Irish Cream in a caramel flavor as a little something extra. I may have gone a little overboard with the Bailey's®, so I adjusted it in the recipe below.  

Well, I think that I may have just found the Pot O'Gold at the end of the rainbow. Happy St. Patrick's Day!  And remember, many an opportunity is lost because a man is out looking for four-leaf clovers. 

Pot O'Gold Cupcakes
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Ingredients

Cupcakes:

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 large eggs

Frosting:

• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 tablespoons Bailey's® Irish Cream (I used the caramel flavor) 
• 1 tablespoon cream
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
 

Cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Line the cups of a standard (12-cup) muffin tin with paper or foil liners.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
4. In a liquid-measuring cup, mix milk and vanilla; set aside. 
5. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.
6. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
7. With mixer on low speed, add half of dry ingredients, followed by milk-vanilla mixture, then remaining dry ingredients. Do not overmix. 
8. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. 
9. Place tin on a rimmed baking sheet; bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.
10. Cool cupcakes 5 minutes in tin, then remove and cool completely on a rack before frosting.

Frosting:

1. In a medium bowl, with an electric mixer, beat unsalted butter, confectioners' sugar, cream, Bailey's, and vanilla extract until smooth.
2. Mix in up to 1/2 cup more sugar or a few more teaspoons of milk as necessary to achieve a spreadable consistency. 
3. Makes enough for 12 cupcakes. 

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart