Everyone loves Baileys, and these easy Baileys cupcakes with chocolate Baileys buttercream are a guaranteed hit at any cake-fuelled gathering – from a cosy girls’ night in to a weekend bake. They taste so delicious you will want to eat them all year round – not just for St Patrick’s Day parties!
Updated 2026
Easy Baileys Cupcakes Recipe
These Baileys Cupcakes are perfect for chocolate lovers and fans of the classic Irish cream liqueur. My recipe combines soft, moist sponge with a rich chocolate Baileys buttercream, giving each bite an unmistakeable indulgent Baileys flavour.
For the best results, I recommend using a good quality chocolate – it can be dark or milk chocolate – depending how rich you like the flavour. You can also add extra cocoa powder to the frosting to deepen the chocolate flavour – too much will make it thicker to pipe – although this won’t matter if you choose to spread the buttercream freeform-style with a knife.
Whether you’re baking these cupcakes for a birthday party or a weekend treat, or even a St Patrick’s Day themed party, these Baileys cupcakes are sure to impress. They are as easy to make as they are divine to eat!
The story behind my Baileys Cupcakes
I first baked these Baileys Cupcakes for a friend’s wedding. When planning the cupcake flavours, the bride insisted Baileys must feature somewhere. As a cream liqueur, Baileys pairs naturally with chocolate. I spent a marathon day baking, dashing across town for baking supplies and decorating over 100 cupcakes by hand.
The experience was stressy but rewarding. And it reminded me: Baileys Cupcakes are an iconic flavour that will please everyone. It wasn’t an Irish wedding but I knew chocolate Baileys Cupcakes would be one of the memorable flavours on the cupcake stand. Even though this post isn’t about weddings, I hope this backstory illustrates how crowd-pleasing these cupcakes are – from casual home baking to big celebrations.
What Makes Baileys Cupcakes Popular?
I think a few factors are at play making Baileys Cupcakes a flavour everyone will love.
Rich Indulgent Flavour: Baileys Irish Cream liqueur is a popular drink with a distinctive flavour. The creaminess goes hand in hand with smooth rich chocolate.
Handy for home bakers: Beating Baileys liqueur into cupcake frosting is easy; you may have a bottle in the drinks cupboard already and it will keep for months if you’re only just opening it.
Baileys Feels A Bit Naughty: Go on, admit it – Baileys is that cheeky drink you opt for at the end of a fun evening. You know you shouldn’t, but it seems few can resist an iced tumbler of the creamy drink with boozy flavour. These Baileys Cupcakes give you a way to enjoy the Baileys flavour earlier in the day! Although the amount of liqueur per cupcake will be low, (less than a teaspoon’s worth), do be mindful Baileys does contain alcohol.
Tips Making Baileys Cupcakes
Adjusting the Baileys flavour: Although you can increase or decrease the amount of liqueur in the buttercream, beware that too much will make your frosting too runny. Another way to intensify the flavour would be to use Chocolate Baileys Liqueur – since the drink is now sold in various flavours. And if you’re not sticking to the official version, Aldi sells 5-6 flavours.
Piping Baileys Buttercream: Use a large star nozzle to get the swirled effect. If you don’t have a nozzle or piping bag, fear not – you can slather on frosting with a table knife for a more rustic effect. Add sprinkles of your choice.
Storing Baileys Cupcakes: The cakes will keep for a few days in an airtight container at room temperature. You can also freeze them for up to a month.
Keep the cupcake cases looking their best: If you freeze the cupcakes, be mindful that the paper cases may go floppy. One way to disguise this is to pop them into an extra clean case before serving.
For an extra-indulgent Baileys touch: Instead of plain chocolate chips, why not add one of these Baileys Truffles on top of each cupcake?
Bailey’s Cupcakes with Chocolate Bailey’s Buttercream Icing
Ingredients
- for the Baileys cupcakes
- 275 g self raising flour
- 275 g caster sugar (superfine baking sugar)
- 275 g softened butter
- 25 g cocoa powder sieved
- 6 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp Baileys or other Irish cream liqueur
- for the Baileys buttercream
- 750 g icing sugar (confectioners sugar)
- 25 g cocoa powder sieved
- 250 g softened butter
- 100 ml Bailey's or other Irish cream liqueur
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 190c or gas mark 5. Simply quickly blitz all ingredients for the cupcake bases except the Bailey's together in the food processor. Drizzle the Bailey's in last through the funnel before pulsing a few times to a smooth batter. Do not over mix.
- Spoon the batter into large muffin cases in a 12 hole muffin tray so that they are around two thirds full. Bake for around 15-18 minutes. For 12 large cupcakes I set the timer for 12 minutes, turn them around on the shelf and leave for another 6 minutes. For standard cupcake size and mini muffin size I set the timer for 10 minutes, turn around then give them a further couple of minutes until done.
- The centres may erupt like little volcanoes but that’s ok, you can lop off these peaks if you want to ice them flat or pipe icing in a spiral to emphasis their shape!
- When the cakes are done, a cocktail stick will just about come out dry. With practice you get the confidence to know how early this is, leaving them even a couple of minutes beyond this point will make your sponge too dry.
- Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Allow to cool completely before covering with icing.
- For the buttercream, beat the softened butter and Bailey's with an electric hand mixer or free standing mixer until very soft and fluffy. Sift on the icing sugar and cocoa several table spoons at a time and incorporate. The more you do at once the more it gets wafted round the kitchen covering everything so it’s best to go slow. When all the icing sugar is mixed in, add another tablespoon of milk if you think it’s still too stiff. Beat the buttercream with the mixer for several minutes, it will go fluffier and lighter. Remember that although it will be soft and squidgy now, the surface of the buttercream will go harder when it’s had a couple of hours to dry out on the surface of a cake.
- Paste your buttercream over the cupcake bases using a small palette knife or pipe it onto them in spirals. Decorate with chocolate curls and fondant flowers or using the decorations of your choice.
Notes
Gosh these look divine. I like making cakes but the thought of making 100 all looking this good…a bit daunting. The only cooking deadline I have is when entertaining at home. This is all good and about planning ahead, being well organised and keeping relaxed. As we cook on bottled gas it can be a bit of a challenge if this runs out in the middle of cooking though – opening another bottle of wine usually helps people not to look at the clock!
what wonderful cupcakes! I love Bailey’s.
Cheers,
Rosa
Wow, you have ben baking up a storm. You must have been absolutely exhausted after making all those beautiful cupcakes.
*kisses* HH
I recently did a ganache with baileys cream and it was absolutely gorgeous:)
I can imagine how exhausting it must have been…I complain when i have 2 make a layer cake 🙂
We’re impressed…that’s a whole lot of cupcakes! They sound delicious though, we LOVE Bailey’s (like really really love) and can only imagine how amazing these taste!
I am not a fan of the cooking deadline (which was reinforced by the MasterChef thingy!).
I do however have a bottle of Bailey’s lurking in the fridge. I have a feeling it might have been there since the start of the year, but that should still be fine for baking with won’t it?! Ixx
I love a bit of baking with “grown up” ingredients such as Baileys!
Thanks everyone! I suppose they are quite grown up!
Wow – I am so impressed! Well done! I only had to make 30 cupcakes for a recent wedding and it was quite stressful, especially when the dog decided to help himself to three of them.
WOW!! I’m so impressed too! 100 cupcakes!! That’s really not easy! The bailey’s buttercream sounds so wonderfully delicious! Glad you meet the deadline too! 🙂
120 cupcakes for a food market, mixer broke with 2 batches of frosting to go, dash to mum’s for mixer & finish with 5 minutes to spare ! soooo stressful, may i ask you where you source your boxes (the ones stacked in the hallway)?
I love baileys, I love chocolate, I love cupcakes so this is a triple win! Will definitely try this recipe and let you know how they go!
I’ve made 60 cupcakes before but was okay for time. Got another booking for another 60 sometime soon so let’s hope it all works out okay!
Where do you buy your cupcake boxes?
Can’t wait to see you blog about all the other fun flavours!
Wow–impressive organisation and dedication. Well done for meeting such a deadline in style. I think chocolate and Baileys sounds just perfect. Yum, yum. 🙂
Oooh…these are so beautiful and utterly indulgent with baileys added. I will eat lots…haha. Salute to you, Sarah. You are such a super woman to me to make so many cupcakes! My high blood pressure will shoot sky high at the pressure..haha. Well done!
I adore Baileys, tried my own adaptation of Baileys profiteroles a while back but think I am going to have to have a bash at your Baileys & chocolate cupcakes. They looked gorgeous too. Own up did all cupcakes make it to your friends wedding or did you hold a few back for……quality control? :-)ha ha. Love your blogs, keep writing. x
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve stayed up all night making cakes for my children’s birthdays so I can’t imagine the stress for a wedding…gulp!
My mouth is watering now! 🙂
One word: drool
I am so ready to spend a day in your kitchen watching you bake! These cupcakes are a thing of beauty and WOW the flavor! I want to try them. Great job, Sarah, you are now a pro! I also have to say that writing under pressure makes me write better but baking under pressure? Disaster! Not a pretty sight and be warned you must wear earplugs if you are within shouting distance of my kitchen.
WOW Sarah what a feat! Pictures please. It sounds amazing. And the results look gorgeous. Well done you.
I’ve become obsessed with baking cupcakes and I’m going to start my own business as soon as I move house. The most I’ve made are 90 in one go, and it was okay – I find that making the bases the day before, brushing them with syrup and storing them in my (closed) cupcake courier, then making and adding the buttercream the next day makes for the best results without nearly as much stress.
Boxes – I get mine from ebay, but there are shops online that specialise in cupcake boxes. I recently got a Cupcake Courier which is fantastic, although heavy when full, and you can’t carry cakes with very high domes. For smaller boxes (up to 6 in each box) use the Wilton ones as the holes are very deep, meaning they don’t move at all.
One question – I use syrups for all my cakes to soak the top, and I always try to include a relevant flavour (such as lemon or orange zest, limoncello, etc) but I really don’t know what to put in a syrup for a chocolate cake. For this, I might try adding Baileys, but worried it might go a bit strange as it’s cream based. Any tips?
Rachel – thanks for the box tips. I have never put syrup on mine so I don’t know about that. I agree Baileys might be bit weird due to the cream but cointreau or grand marnier would be good for choc orange cakes?
… I soak the tops of mine with Baileys – it’s utterly yum! x
That sounds good… I must try it.
These are perfect! I was going to make Baileys fudge today, but don’t have a tray I can use, so I will make these instead! Also I may have had a little spack-attack when I read you popped to Bluewater, as its not far from me! Though a lot of the stuff in Lakeland is on sale at the Range (Dockside outlet centre, Chatham) and they have a few more bits for sugarcraft and decorating there, and more cupcake cases in different colours and styles!
Can’t wait to make these cupcakes! Thank you so much for posting the recipe! xx
hey! these look so great i have just been asked to make a birthday cake for my lil sisters other half and she wanted a baileys cake these sound perfect! but i would want to make a single large cake 9 or 10inch any idea how i would adjust the recipe if not i will just have to do my best!
I’m not sure off hand how much batter you’d need but probably a double batch for 24 cupcakes worth of sponge would be enough to fill two 9 inch tins. That’s just me guessing though.
Thanks Sarah! I will Definatly give it a go
Sound amazing and look amazing! May try making these tonight. xx
Hi,
this recipe sound great..Ilove, love Bailey’s LOL….my question is the 6 eggs..is that the correct amount or a typo? It seems like a lot…
Thanks
It is indeed six eggs but bear in mind this is a large batch as I was making them for a wedding – you could halve it to make 12 large cupcakes.
Hi,
I am just wondering how much Milk to use as this is not listed in the ingrediants. You say “Simply quickly blitz all ingredients for the bases except the milk”… Hoping you can confirm.
These look amazing and I can’t wait to try them – thank you for sharing.
Usually I’d add around 75mls milk to this size batch of cupcake batter but here I have used Bailey’s instead. For the buttercream it will be a further 40-100mls liquid depending on how you like the consistency. Hope that helps.
Sounds like a fab recipe – definitely going to give it a go over Christmas!
I’ve just finished making these and they are so easy to make. They look and taste absolutely lush too thank you so much x x
Made these for work at Christmas and as part of pressie gorgeous,
a bit too sweet though.
they looked lovely all dressed up in their Christmas decorations !
Can you convert the measurements to cups, ounces, ou for the help.ect.? I am a new at this and not sure how to do it. Thank y
I would like to do this at some point in future but in the meantime there are numerous places online you could convert it yourself.
Ok I will look into it. Thanks a bunch & have a wonderful day. 🙂
I really enjoyed reading your entertaining account of this enterprise and the mourning of the cupcakes stacked in boxes ready to leave. Needless to say I am off to buy baileys tomorrow.
Bailey’s tastes so good in this buttercream. Perfect for Christmas or St Patrick’s Day
Anything with Baileys in has got be from the start. A good excuse to go and buy a bottle. Fabulous idea.