I made these cupcakes for our Superbowl party–a Guinness chocolate cupcake topped with Bailey’s frosting sounded like a perfect dessert for a group of (mostly) guys watching football.  But I thought I’d save the post for closer to St. Patrick’s day, so of course I’m now late

I’m sure no one minds, though, because people love cupcakes year-round.  The original recipe from Smitten Kitchen (now dubbed “chocolate whiskey and beer cupcakes” due to some controversy on that blog about the name) actually called for a filling of chocolate ganache mixed with whiskey–the cocktail, the “Irish car bomb”, consists of Guinness, Bailey’s irish cream, and whiskey. But I didn’t want to buy a whole bottle of whiskey to make this, and I thought the filling might make it too rich.  I actually wish I had done it, though, because the cake part wasn’t very sweet on its own, so I think the addition of the filling would have made it just right.  They were good anyway (the topping is a just shaved chocolate for decoration), but maybe I’ll try them again with the filling–especially since I have a whole bottle of Bailey’s left over!