Irish Cream Guinness Cupcakes are the perfect boozy, chocolatey treat to serve this St. Patrick’s Day. They’re moist and creamy, with tasty toffee flavor!
This delicious Dessert Recipe adds a little bit of Guinness to the Chocolate Cake base and then tops it off with creamy Baileys Irish cream frosting for the perfect moist texture and rich flavor!
This fun cupcake recipe is rich, moist, and perfectly delicious. The stout beer and Baileys add a warm, caramel-like flavor to the chocolate to give these cupcakes a unique and irresistible taste. The classic Irish alcohols make it a great dessert to enjoy on St. Patrick’s Day!
If you’re hosting a party on St. Patrick’s Day, try serving these sweet cupcakes along with other holiday favorites. You can put the Irish treat out along with fun green treats like Mint Oreo Fudge and Mint Cookies. The green desserts go with the St. Patrick’s theme, and they’re something that kids can enjoy.
BOOZY CUPCAKES
Because of the Irish Cream liqueur, you’ll have to reserve these cupcakes just for adults. The alcohol in the stout beer will mostly bake out of the Guinness Cupcakes. However, the frosting isn’t cooked at all so the alcohol will remain in the topping. While boozy cupcakes are delicious and very on theme for St. Patrick’s Day, not everyone can enjoy them.
The good thing is that this recipe is enough to make two batches of cupcakes. If you want to share them with anyone who can’t have alcohol, you can always divide the batter into two mixing bowls and only add the Guinness into one. You can use a substitute like brewed coffee, or buttermilk in the other batch. Then for the frosting, just make a regular Buttercream Icing for the non-alcoholic cupcakes.
Just make sure to keep the two batches separated when you’re serving them. An easy way to make the differentiation obvious is if you add food coloring to one of the batch’s frosting. You could also put different sprinkles on each batch to tell them apart.
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TIPS FOR MAKING GUINNESS CUPCAKES
- Prep: Take your butter out of the fridge ahead of time so that it has time to soften. Start the Baileys Cream Guinness Cupcakes by preheating your oven and lining two muffin tins with paper liners. If you’re serving them for a special occasion you can add to the look by using on theme cupcake liners.
- Guinness Chocolate Cake: Add the butter and white sugar to your stand mixer. If you don’t have a stand mixer just put the ingredients in a mixing bowl and use a handheld electric mixer. Beat the butter and sugar until it’s light and fluffy. Then mix in the eggs, sour cream, milk, and Guinness Beer. Continue mixing until smooth. In a separate bowl sift together the all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the stand mixer and mix on the lowest setting. To make sure the flour doesn’t go everywhere, try covering the stand mixer with a clean dishtowel.
- Bake: Use an ice cream scoop to spoon the batter into the cupcake tin. Fill each cup 2/3 full. Bake the Chocolate Cupcakes for 18-20 minutes in the preheated oven. To test if the cupcakes are done stick a toothpick in the center of one. If it comes out clean, you can take the Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes out of the oven to cool.
- Baileys Buttercream Frosting: Cream your butter at low speed, then add the confectioners sugar in ½ cup increments. Once it’s fluffy bring the speed to medium-high and continue mixing for another minute. Add the Baileys cream and beat until light and fluffy. Spoon the frosting into a piping bag and frost cupcakes.

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VARIATIONS ON IRISH CREAM GUINNESS CUPCAKES
- Baileys Cream Cheese Frosting: Instead of Baileys Buttercream, you can make Baileys Cream Cheese Frosting. To make the cream cheese frosting combine 8 ounces cream cheese, 4 tablespoons butter, and 3 tablespoons Baileys Irish Cream. Slowly mix in 3 cups icing sugar. Once combined put the cream cheese frosting in a piping bag and frost the cupcakes.
- Sweetener: For a darker taste replace the granulated sugar with brown sugar or maple syrup.
- Non-alcoholic cupcakes: If you don’t want alcohol in your cupcakes you can replace the Guinness with coffee or buttermilk. The Chocolate Cupcakes will still turn out deliciously moist with one of these substitutes.
- Add-ins: For some extra chocolate try mixing some chocolate chips into the cupcake batter. You can use semisweet, dark, milk, white chocolate, or some mix of them. For different flavors try mixing in a little almond or vanilla extract.
- Food coloring: If you want to make the cupcakes for St. Patrick’s Day, try adding a couple of drops of green gel food coloring to your frosting for a fun, festive look.
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HOW TO STORE IRISH CREAM GUINNESS CUPCAKES
- Serve: To keep the Irish cream Guinness Cupcakes moist, don’t leave them uncovered at room temperature for more than a couple of hours.
- Store: Once the cupcakes have cooled to room temperature, you can put them in an airtight container or cover them to keep them fresh. They’ll stay good at room temperature for 1-2 days or in the fridge for 1 week.
- Freeze: Carefully sealed, you can also freeze the cupcakes for up to 6 months. Let them thaw in the fridge before enjoying.


Ingredients
Guinness Cupcakes:
- 1 cup unsalted butter , softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2/3 cup sour cream
- 1 cup Guinness stout beer , room temperature
- 2 cups flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Irish Cream Frosting:
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter , softened
- 8 cups powdered sugar , or more as needed
- 1/2 cup Bailey's Irish cream
Instructions
Guinness Cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line two 12 cup muffin trays with liner cups.
- To a stand mixer add the butter and sugar and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy.
- Add in eggs, sour cream, and Guinness beer, and milk until well combined.
- Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt and add it to the stand mixer on the lowest speed setting until just combined.
- Using an ice cream scoop fill the cups 2/3 full and bake for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool completely.
Bailey's Buttercream Frosting:
- To your stand mixer on low-speed cream, the butter then start adding in the powdered sugar in ½ cup increments until fully combined then raise the speed to medium-high for 1 additional minute.
- Add in Bailey's Irish Cream and beat until light and fluffy for 1 minute.
- Add frosting to a piping bag and frost your cooled cupcakes.
Why do you say beer and milk when there is no milk in the recipe?!?!
Glad you mentioned this Sarah, I am re-testing and will update!