These Irish Cream Cupcakes are made with a rich chocolate base and are filled with a creamy and smooth Irish Cream Filling.
Frosting these cupcakes is a American buttercream spiked with Irish Cream. These cupcakes are perfect for an adult birthday celebration and are the perfect treat for St. Patrick's Day.
The Chocolate and Irish Cream pairing in these cupcakes is absolutely delicious.
Irish Cream Cupcakes Ingredients
Chocolate is the base for the cupcakes with the Irish Cream is added into the cupcake batter to give it that delicious Irish Cream flavor.
The ingredients needed for these cupcakes is quite basic. For the full ingredient amounts check out the recipe card at the bottom of the post!
- All-purpose flour- spooned & leveled
- Granulated Sugar
- Eggs - room temperature is best
- Cocoa powder - unsweetened
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Vanilla Extract
- Buttermilk
- Irish Cream
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Buttermilk Substitute
No worries if you don't have buttermilk on hand, it can easily be substituted!
To substitute the buttermilk in this recipe, add ¾ cup of either white vinegar or lemon juice to a measuring cup and then add enough to milk to equal ¾ cup. Allow the mix to sit for roughly 10 minutes before adding it into the cupcake batter. This gives the ingredients a chance to mingle together.
Irish Cream Filling
These cupcakes have a delicious filling made with Irish Cream. This filling is rich and creamy.
- Unsalted Butter - room temperature
- Shortening
- Confectioner's Sugar
- Salt
- Irish Cream
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Irish Cream Buttercream
This Irish cream buttercream is made with an American buttercream base and is made using basic ingredients.
- Unsalted Butter - room temperature
- Confectioner's Sugar
- Salt
- Irish Cream
- Milk - just enough milk to make the buttercream easy to pipe. About 2 to 4 tablespoons of milk added a little at a time.
How to Make Irish Cream Cupcakes
These cupcakes are pretty basic to make and pretty quick to make from start to finish.
The first step to making these cupcakes is to work with room temperature ingredients. Allow the butter and eggs come to room temperature before making the cupcake batter.
The unsalted butter is beat using a hand mixer until the butter is creamy. Once creamy, the granulated sugar is added. The room temperature eggs are then blended in and the batter will become light and fluffy. At this time the vanilla extract is added in as well.
After the eggs are beat into the batter the unsweetened cocoa powder is mixed in.
Next, the spooned & leveled all-purpose flour is mixed with the baking powder and baking soda. Half of he dry mixture is slowly beat into the wet ingredients.
The Irish Cream and milk is then added into the batter followed by the remaining dry ingredients.
The cupcake batter is then transferred to paper-lined cupcake pans.
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Filling the Irish Cream Cupcakes
It is quite easy to fill cupcakes and you only need a piping bag and a Bismark Tip (or a piping tip with a open tip) to fill the cupcakes.
Once the cupcake filling is made, transfer the filling to a bag fitted with the piping tip.
There is no need to cut out the center of the cupcake, all you need to do is puncture the center of the cupcake with tip and squeeze the filling into the cupcake. Gently lift as you squeeze and pull away from the cupcake once you can see the filling of the cupcake start to ooze out of the top.
Once the filling is in all the cupcakes, it's time to make the Irish Cream buttercream frosting. I use a 1M piping tip fitted on a piping bag.
📖 Recipe
Irish Cream Cupcakes
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter - room temperature
- 1 ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs - room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 ½ cup all purpose flour - spooned & leveled
- ¾ cup buttermilk*
- ¼ cup Irish Cream
Irish Cream Filling
- ½ cup unsalted butter - room temperature
- ¼ cup shortening
- 2 cups confectioner's sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup Irish Cream
Irish Cream Buttercream
- 1 cup unsalted butter - room temperature
- 6 cups confectioner's sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoon Irish Cream
- Milk - 2-5 tablespoon as needed (to make frosting easy to pipe)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F
- Line cupcake pans with 24 cupcake liners.
- Cream the unsalted butter until creamy.
- Add in the granulated sugar until combined well.
- Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.
- Slowly beat in the cocoa powder
- In a separate bowl, add the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
- Add half of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
- Slowly pour in the Irish Cream and the buttermilk*.
- Slowly beat in the remaining dry ingredients and combine well.
- Evenly distribute the cupcake batter among 24 cupcake liners.
- Bake for 16-18 minutes or until the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
- Cool completely before adding the filling.
Irish Cream Filling
- Wait until the cupcakes are completely cool before filling.
- Beat together the room temperature butter and the shortening.
- Add the salt and the confectioner's sugar.
- Pour in the Irish Cream and beat until a smooth and creamy filling forms.
- Add the filling to a piping bag fitted with an open tip piping tip or Bismark.
- Puncture the center of a cupcake and stop ¾ of the way down.
- Gently squeeze the filling into the cupcake while lifting up and away from the cupcake.
- Stop squeezing when you see the filling rise to the top of the cupcake.
Irish Cream Buttercream
- Beat the unsalted butter until creamy.
- Add in the confectioner's sugar. It will become thick.
- Add the salt and Irish Cream.
- Beat until well combined and creamy.
- Add the milk a little at a time to make the frosting easy to pipe.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is an estimate based on third-party calculations. Actual values may vary due to ingredients, measurements, and serving sizes.
© Mama Needs Cake
Tried this recipe?
Let us know how it was!Dana is an experienced recipe creator who crafts easy and delicious recipes for all levels of home cooks.
Her recipes range from classic comfort foods to healthy and nutritious meals, and she is always on the lookout for new and exciting ways to bring flavor and variety to the table.
Natalie says
Lovely dessert for St. Patrick's celebration. I have family coming over this year. I will definitely bake these cupcakes. They look delicious!
Marisa says
It's a good thing we keep Irish Cream handy at our house. We love the taste and when I saw this recipe I knew I'd be making it for our St. Paddy's day party. Of course I had to give it a trial run. Well, the cupcakes were super moist and that frosting is to die for. I'll definitely keep this recipe handy.
Linda says
These cupcakes are so moist, and the filling and buttercream are so smooth and blends well with these chocolate cupcakes