apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Smitten Kitchen's "Car Bomb" cupcakes. Guiness chocolate cake cupcakes with Bailey's cream frosting. Need I say more?

http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/01/car-bomb-cupcakes/

I'd go with Tamasin Day Lewis' Bittersweet Chocolate Irish Whisky Cake:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/photo/Bittersweet-Chocolate-Irish-Whiskey-Cake-238254

For starters, since you are going with a very heavy main course, I'd make warmed oysters with chive sauce:

http://britishfood.about.com/od/starter1/r/oysters.htm

Or Mussels in Garlic and Guiness:

http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/2Kitch/Starters.html

When I was a kid, mom would always make us Broonie for breakfast on St. Patrick's Day. It's a light gingerbread with oatmeal. Here's a similar recipe:
http://www.recipezaar.com/Orkney-Broonie-122068

Substitute molasses for treacle.

Irish coffee, definitely! We make it with strong coffee, irish whiskey and lightly sweetened whipped cream. (I don't actually drink it because I dislike coffee, but it's my dad's specialty after-dinner drink)

Maybe serve some fancy mustards with your corned beef and cabbage? I know it's the only way I eat mustard a lot of the time.

I hear guiness floats are quite good, too.

Difficult to think of typically Irish appies, and I'm speaking as an Irish person! Traditional Irish fare rarely includes starters, as it tends to be rustic "peasant" type food. Corned beef not usually eaten in Ireland, it's usually ham or bacon. The cabbage is cooked with the bacon, added towards the end of the cooking time, but I've only seen the potatoes boiled separately.
Popular starters in Ireland, from my experience, are not very "traditional", and not particularly "Irish" eg steamed mussels, root veg soups, melon, deep fried brie with fruit coulis.
For dessert, how about brown bread ice cream? Bread and butter pudding? Stewed apple or rhubarb with custard? Even if there is no dessert, every dinner finishes with a cup of tea and a biscuit/ cookie.

and after ( or while ) you eat these delicious things, I recommend watching "Darby O' Gill and the Little People"

I tried the Beef Hand Pies from Everyday Food last week. If you make them, consider adding sauteed onion and much more in the way of seasonings. They were pretty and flaky, but bland.

I apologize in advance for what may sound like snark; I've just had a couple too many "what's up with the green beer anyway" conversations with Irish friends.

One way to "liven up" the "bland traditional meal" is...go with something a bit more authentic. Corned beef isn't actually all that authentically Irish. It's Irish-American, definitely -- it was based on a bacon-and-cabbage dish popular as a celebratory meal among the Irish peasants who came over during the days of the Famine.

These days, though, the cuisine in Ireland proper has improved somewhat -- and you can have something a little more authentic, but tastier. Salmon in any way, shape, or form is one choice -- there's an ancient Irish legend about the hero Finn McCool eating a magic salmon that gave him wisdom, so there's a tie-in there. Spiced roast beef is more of a Christmas thing, but would also do.

Then there's some of the homier casseroles and "pub grub" kind of things that could even be side-dishes for if you want to stick with the corned beef. Colcannon -- a sort of casserole of mashed potatoes, cabbage, onion, and cheese -- is very traditional. Something I love is Dublin Coddle -- a stew of bacon, sausage, sliced potato, sliced onion, and sliced carrot.

As for a nice simple green side dish, I found a simple recipe in an Irish cookbook that just combined green peas, green beans, lima beans, and butter beans; they were all just simply cooked and mixed together in a very simple sauce of just a bit of melted butter, a dash of parsley, and a couple strips of bacon crumbled on top. I brought that to a pot luck and it was devoured by everyone who had been getting sick of all the baked ziti and such.

There are some very traditional fruit desserts -- fruit crumbles or fruit crisps are always good, and then there's the "fool" or the "flummery." Both the fool and the flummery are very simple, mousse or pudding-type things -- for the fool, you stew fruit, puree it with a bit of sugar, and then fold it into whipped cream and chill until firm. Flummery is similar, but a bit thicker -- one recipe I have involves whipping together cream cheese and heavy cream, lacing it with some whiskey and toasted oatmeal, and then layering that in a parfait glass with raspberries.

I second Deb's (smittenkitchen.com) Car Bomb cupcakes.. made the cupcake version.. then did a cake version which is easier and equally delicious (both in the last 6 wks)

I just did 2 9 inch rounds, poured ganache in the middle and on the sides and frosted w/the bailey's buttercream.

I plan on making another cake for the coworkers next week.

I love corned beef, but I love corned beef followed by an Irish coffee or a stout float more!! I am so excited for my own green-beer-less St. Patrick's Day party.

OMG ... I was totally planning to do the Guinness chocolate cake for my friend's b-day this weekend after I saw it at RecipeGirl - http://www.recipegirl.com/2008/08/11/chocolate-guinness-stout-cake/.

But carbomb is totally taking it up another notch. Awesomeness!

Make some brown bread and try to find some Kerrygold butter!

Irish soda-bread with potato soup?

If you're not above a little bit of st-patricks-day cheesiness, you might do a salad starter displayed in the shape of a clover leaf.