St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes

For St. Patrick’s Day today, I made these delicious cupcakes. Brown sugar pound cake is the cake part of the cupcake, a dense but moist cake. They are topped with Bailey’s Irish Cream frosting, a perfect complement to the cake. Yummy!

Source: Brown Sugar Pound Cakes and St. Patrick’s Day Cupcakes, Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes

Ingredients
Brown Sugar Pound Cakes
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
4 large eggs, room temperature
¾ cup buttermilk

Bailey’s Irish Cream Frosting
1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 pound (4 cups) confectioners’ sugar
3 tablespoons Bailey’s Irish Cream liqueur
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and beating until combined after each.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each ¾ full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 10 minutes; turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely. (Cupcakes can be stored up to 3 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.)

Make the frosting. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter until smooth. Reduce speed to medium. Add the confectioners’ sugar, ½ cup at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as needed, about 5 minutes total; after every two additions, raise speed to high and beat 10 seconds (to aerate frosting).

Add Bailey’s and vanilla, and beat until combined and smooth. Spread generous amounts of frosting over cupcakes, and let set.