Friday, July 29, 2011

Bourbon Ball Cupcakes


I'm still waiting to hear back on a job interview from earlier this week, and I am not very patient. I want to know NOW what's going on. Not knowing means that I can't really move on and plan anything else. So I decided to cope with the stress by baking.

The Bourbon Ball Cupcakes from the Reynolds website seemed like a good choice. They're chocolate. With bourbon. What's not to like? 

It's an easy recipe. Basically you make chocolate cupcakes using a cake mix, except that you add 2 tablespoons of bourbon to the mix. I used 3 tablespoons because I think that Four Roses is a rather mild bourbon and I wanted it to have a bit more of a kick.

The frosting is a basic buttercream recipe, but with 2 tablespoons of bourbon added and some finely diced walnuts. Again, I added 3 tablespoons because I wanted to be sure to have the bourbon flavor. 

The only other change I made was to dip the tops of the cupcakes in a little bit of bourbon (and let it dry) before frosting them. I had read a tip online (I'm sorry, I wish I could credit the source but I don't remember it) that it helps keep the cupcakes moist if you seal the tops with either alcohol or a simple sugar syrup. I like the little extra flavor it adds. (Try a simple sugar syrup with a bit of lemon juice on otherwise plain vanilla cupcakes - yum!)

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