Chocolate Whiskey Cupcakes

What is this, a recipe with frosting?! These were made for a friend's birthday, and knowing his love of whiskey I thought these would be just the ticket. These seemed to go down very well, the chocolate base with the whiskey syrup makes for a very moist cupcake. You can add more or less whiskey to taste, mine were fairly strong (to me anyway, who hates whiskey)  

The sprinkles were bought from Williams Sonoma in America, I thought it was about time to break them out. 

Makes 24 Cupcakes.

Ingredients

Cupcakes
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp espresso powder
1 cup of boiling water
½ cup of sour cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups plain flour
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
16 tbsp unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 ¾ cup sugar
2 large eggs

Whiskey Syrup
½ cup water
½ cup sugar
2 tbsp whiskey

Frosting
8 tbsp unsalted butter (room temperature)
3 cups icing sugar
6 tbsp whiskey 

Method

Cupcakes

Preheat oven 180C

Combine cocoa powder, espresso in small bowl. Add boiling water and whisk till smooth. Set aside to cool at room temperature, when cool whisk in sour cream and vanilla.

 Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl, combine.

In a medium bowl combine butter and sugar until fluffy and light. Beat in eggs one at a time.

Add dry ingredients and sour cream mix slowly to the butter and sugar, beat sparingly.

Bake at 180C for about 18 minutes until done, they should be fairly flat topped. Cool in the pan for five minutes and then allow to fully cool on a wire rack.

Whiskey Frosting

Beat butter till light and fluffy. Add the icing sugar slowly. Mix in Whiskey until smooth.

Whiskey Syrup

Combine water and sugar in a small pan, heat gently stirring until the sugar dissolves. Take off the heat and add whiskey. Allow to cool to room temperature.


When cupcakes have cooled poke holes in tops with a fork, spread a teaspoon of whiskey syrup over. Allow to dry slightly before frosting.  

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

It has been raining here, a lot. So it looks like autumn is really here already, and nothing says autumn to me like apple and cinnamon  baked goodies. These are a mix of lots recipes and some experimenting. The applesauce base makes then so very moist and difficult to resist. In fact I made these yesterday and there are significantly less left then there should be considering there are only two of us eating them!

This is a bit of a muddle of measuring systems, please ask if you are attempting this recipe and get confused. Sometimes I get lazy about converting the American cup sizes and make it up as I go.

Ingredients

Cupcakes


3tbsp unsalted butter softened
¼ cup of demerara sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup of plain flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of ground ginger
Pinch of clove
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp applesauce
1 cup of thinly sliced apple
One small toffee bar (25g) cut into chunks


Topping 


2tbsp butter melted
1 tbsp soft brown sugar
2 tbsp porridge oats
1 tbsp chopped walnuts


Preheat oven to 180C


Mix the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. (It will slightly gritty due to the demerara)


Beat the egg and vanilla into mix.


In another bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt.


Add half of the flour mix into the egg mix and combine, then add 1 tbsp of applesauce and mix. Repeat with second half of flour and last tbsp of applesauce. Don’t over mix, just until there is no visible flour.


Stir in apple slices and toffee pieces.


Fill up cases 2/3 of the way.


Combine all the topping ingredients and sprinkle over the cupcake mix.


Cook for 18-20 minutes.