IN HONOR OF MY UPCOMING FAVORITE DAY, I'M REPOSTING THIS RECIPE...I WILL BE MAKING THEM SOONBailey's Irish Cream buttercream recipeI adapted this from The Cupcakery. Give it a try...and don't skip the lemon, it makes it pop.
1 stick salted butter, softened
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
4 heaping cups sifted powdered sugar
1/4th of a large lemon's juice
pinch salt
1/4 cup Bailey's....or more...let the frosting's consistency be your guide.
Cream together butters, add half the sugar and cream to combine. add the rest of the sugar, lemon juice and salt and combine, then add bailey's and beat until creamy.
The recipe is from
http://the-cupcakery-blog.blogspot.com/Chocolate Guinness Stout Cupcakesthis recipe makes about 48 cuppies, I usually make half to two thirds recipe
2 cups Guinness Extra Stout
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
4 cups all purpose flour
4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 large eggs
1 1/3 cups sour cream
1 pkg. Hershey's mini-morsel semi-sweet chocolate chips (I never add, but you could)
1. Preheat oven to 350° degrees. Line baking cups with paper liners and set aside.
2. Bring 2 cups stout and 2 cups butter to simmer in large saucepan over medium heat. Do not boil.
3. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly
4. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in large bowl to blend.
5. Using an electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend.
6. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine.
7. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed.
8. Using a rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Gently fold in mini-morsel semi-sweet chocolate chips.(Mixture will appear robust and lumpy.)
9. Divide batter among paper liners and bake 17 - 22 minutes. Cupcakes are done when tester inserted into center of cakes comes out clean. Let cool for about 10 minutes on a wire rack.
10. VERY IMPORTANT: Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting!
Chocolate Ganache
12 ounce pakage Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips (or milk chocolate) (I used milk choc this time, but I prefer dark chocolate)
1/2 cup heavy cream
(1 - 2 Tbsp Jamison's Whiskey for a true Irish Car Bomb, but these are good without the whiskey too!)
1. Combine both ingredients in a double boiler.
2. Continue to mix thoroughly over boiling water until ingredients are smooth and chocolate is completely melted.
(Add whiskey at this point if your gonna)
3. Layer this ganache on completely cooled cupcakes and allow to harden.
After ganache has set, put a dollop of the Baileys buttercream on top and enjoy!!!
The theme is a lakeshore spring wedding. This is what I came up with. The cake is a smaller deconstructed monkey la la covered in ganache and the cupcakes are chocolate with strawberry filling and ganache, vanilla with vanilla and lemon with strawberry. Loved this one. 
ohhhh, this did not turn out well. I think it's sloppy and resembles a Hannah Montana cake. It was supposed to be this brilliant, shimmery star with 30 and stars exploding it out....ended up being more like a silent fart. (yeah, I said it).
Truly one of my favorites...however, I cannot eat it as I am on a diet, and cheated the last 2 days...I dare not eat any or it might trigger a cake orgy. Anyways, I doubled the recipe, baked it in a 9 x 13 and am taking this thing to work...so no pictures of it cut. I'll let you know how it goes.
a repeat of cookie monster, this time I made this base a bit bigger, and had one arm lying on the cake. I wish I would have put more cookies on the cake...but I quess I didn't really see how bare it looked when I was doing it.
For my coworker, this is a replica of the cake featured under "whats hot" at country kitchen sweetart, I did it in buttercream instead of fondant tho, and skipped the bottom tier... Good thing I did, this cake was pretty big.
