Mini Car Bomb Cakes

Ok, so St. Patrick's day has come and gone but in my opinion Guinness, whisky, and Irish cream are always in style. The inspiration for these little cakes came from Lena at A Crimson Kiss who shared her idea for Irish car bomb cupcakes with me.  I was thinking about it and remembered that one bakery I worked at made mini gourmet ding-dongs.  So, I put the two together and came up with these mini treats.  They were amazing!  I could not believe how many yummy sounds my friends made over these little babies. The Guinness chocolate cake is moist and rich, the Irish cream filling is fluffy and sweet, and the whisky ganache adds a perfect bite to round it all out. 

(don't they look like cute little sandwiches without the ganache)

I love the idea of creating individual sized treats for all my guests and the fact that they fit in my hand makes me feel so much less guilty...even if I eat three, oops!

(cakes with just the crumb coat, didn't have time to add the final layer of ganache...oh well!)

These may be the saddest dessert photos I've ever shared, but I literally didn't have time to finish decorating them before everyone was popping them in their mouths.  Trust me, yours will probably look much better as long as you don't have a room full of hungry friends. Give these a try and enjoy the decadent goodness.  Recipe after the jump!

Ok, here we go.  Make sure you have a little time set aside for these.  I made the cake the night before.  You're going to need a little time to let the crumb coat set before you finish decorating these little cakes. 

Guinness Chocolate Cake:

1 1/2 cup Guinness stout

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 cups  flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 teaspoons salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
1/4 cup chocolate chips  

Preheat oven to 350

Butter and flour a 9x13 cake pan and line the bottom with parchement paper. 

Bring the Guinness and butter to a simmer in a heavy, medium saucepan over medium heat. Set aside to cool.

Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl to combine. 

Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sour cream on medium speed until combined. Add the Guinness/butter mixture to the egg mixture slowly beating constantly, temper if mixture is still warm. Fold in dry ingredients.

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool then flip onto a cutting surface.

Irish Cream Filling:

I used  this Swiss buttercream recipe.  It's my favorite and I almost always have some in my freezer.  For this filling use 1/3 of the prepared buttercream and freeze the rest for a rainy day. 

Beat in 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of Irish cream (think Bailey's)to taste and set aside. 

Whiskey Ganache: 

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (or chocolate chips)
2/3 cup heavy cream
3 tbs Irish whiskey

Finely chop the chocolate (or use chocolate chips) and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir it  until smooth. Add the whiskey and stir until combined. Let the ganache cool slightly while assembling cakes. 

Assembly: (sorry I had pictures of this but they died with my old computer)

Using a seratted knife cut the cake in half like your going to make a giant cake sandwich, oooh that sounds good.  We want to make two thinner layers out of this one cake.  

Once you have your two thin sheet cakes cut out circles with a small cookie cutter, or use a champagne flue like I did, high class over here. Pipe about a tablespoon of Irish cream filling onto half of the cake rounds.  Then top with second cake round as shown above. 

Once the mini cakes are assembled use a spatula (or butter knife) and spread a thin layer of ganache on the cakes.  This works best when the ganache is still warm.  This layer does not have to look perfect this is just the crumb coat (see mine above).  Let the cakes set in the freezer or refrigerator until the ganache is firm. 

Once the ganache is firm, frost the cakes with one more layer of ganache, to make them pretty, then dot with buttercream frosting as desired.  

Enjoy!