Both my grandmother and my mother routinely toss "a little something" into their baking, so I grew up stealing dribbles from the bottle of whiskey or Kahlua or whatnot in the cabinet for my baking projects. This here -- chocolate Irish cream with coffee -- is one of my favorites, but I also redesigned a gingerbread recipe to incorporate my favorite triplebock (dark beer) and that one might have to, ahem...take the cake. For the person baking vegan, I'd recommend substituting Jamison's Irish Whiskey for the Irish Cream. The Jamison's is vegan but will still give a distinctly "Irish" flavor to these cupcakes. It's a bit stronger than the Irish Cream so you might want to reduce the quantity a bit if you prefer mild flavors but, honestly, it's probably the way that I'll try making these cupcakes first. The substitution saves me a trip to the liquor store, and isn't the marvelous thing about baking with liquor that you can mix and match? Thank you so much for sharing about the whiskey. I hadn't even thought of suggesting that. Bravo baking community! ~ MaryJane

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