I developed the filling and frosting recipes on my own with the help of reliable sources like Cooks Illustrated and other blogger's experiments. Ultimately, my frosting turned out lighter and fluffier than most Bailey's frosting recipes I found (many were simply butter, confectioner's sugar, and Bailey's). I will say that the cream cheese subdued the Bailey's flavor a bit, but the flavor is still delightful. I suppose I'll get official results from my coworkers and friends tomorrow.
Rather than try to develop my own cupcake recipe, I decided to use a recipe from a reliable source: Dave Lieberman from the Food Network. Here's a link to his recipe for Chocolate Stout Cupcakes. The only things I changed were halving his recipe and not using his icing.
In general, I found his recipe incredibly easy. It's interesting that he uses a brownie or muffin method to make the cupcakes. For cupcakes (and regular cake) you incorporate dry ingredients into a fat/sugar mixture alternately with a liquid like buttermilk. However, these guys are less labor intensive; you simply incorporate the dry into the wet, fill some muffin tins and bake. Easy as pie. Or cupcakes. Or whatever.
Assembly
I took a small pairing knife and cored out each cupcake. I aim for a hole the size of a nickel and a depth of about halfway into the cupcake.
Then, I used a pastry bag fitted with a narrow tip to fill the cupcakes with the Kahlua pastry cream. *See below for pastry cream and frosting recipes.
Next, I used a wider rose tip on a pastry bag to frost the cupcakes. I started by going around the opening to 'cap' the pastry cream.
The result? Deliciousness. I will say that these cupcakes turned out very well, but the Kahlua pastry cream is definitely gilding the lilly a bit; they would be great with the frosting on its own if you didn't want to go to the trouble.
My apologies for the crappier than usual picture. For the life of my I can't find my digital camera...
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