Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Yummy!

Sorry to post Monday's late...

Song Stuck on the Brain: Levon by Elton John. He's coming to town for a concert at the new Sprint venue and the radio has been playing the heck out of this song. It's okay. Not one of my favorites. I'd rather here Candle in the Wind, Daniel, Benny and the Jets, or Goodbye Yellow Brick Road... just to name a few.

A friend emailed me this recipe and it looked so yummy and fun, I thought I'd share it. It's for Root Beer Float cupcakes. I can hear Angel in the background making gagging noises. She hates root Beer. I love it. One of the few things we disagree on. I got her really good a few months ago, and it wasn't even intentional.

We take lunch together every day and I happened to be driving. We went to some fast food place. We usually don't drink a lot of pop, but occasionally we'll get a combo that comes with a drink (and you can't sub water... which is ridiculous, but that's another post.) and if I do order pop, it's usually Dr. Pepper. That's what Angel prefers too. Anyway, on this particular occasion I ordered Root Beer.

We get our food, drive back to the Bat Cave and park in the lot to eat our lunch. Angel, who didn't order a drink this time, grabs for my pop. I don't think anything about it, I don't care if she drinks some. She takes a good sip and then gags.

"Blech!!!" she looks like she just drank a liver and onion milk shake.

"What's the matter?" I'm clueless.

"It's Root Beer!"

"Yeah. So?" Still clueless.

"I hate Root Beer!" She's still making faces and little gaggy noises.

I start laughing. Hysterically. "Well then why did you drink it?"

"I thought you ordered Dr. Pepper."

"You were sitting six inches away from me when I ordered it." Still laughing. Now getting teary.

"I wasn't paying attention. And you shouldn't laugh so hard. I almost spit it back into the cup on reflex."

Ugh! Not laughing now. "Thank you for not backwashing into my drink. Yuck!"

Now she asks before she takes a sip. Maybe it was a good lesson after all.

Root Beer Float Cupcakes from YumSugar.com


Cake Ingredients

1 cup root beer schnapps
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned style root beer (like A&W or Dads)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups dark brown sugar
1 cup butter
2 eggs
3 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbs. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

Root Beer Glaze

4 cups confectioners sugar
1/3 cup root beer
3 Tbs. root beer schnapps*
3 Tbs. vegetable oil

*for a more kid friendly version, replace schnapps with more root beer

You will also need some extra root beer schnapps (1 Tbs. per cupcake)
Or for the kiddies use root beer (again 1 Tbs. per cupcake)
You will also need some basic Vanilla buttercream ( there are many recipes online to try J)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
2. In a bowl, mix together root beer schnapps, root beer, and vanilla extract. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs, mix until smooth
5. Sift in flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
6. Mix with hand mixer on low, while slowly pouring in root beer mixture.
7. Mix until smooth and lump free.
8. Pour into lined cupcake pan. (Use foil cupcake liners to avoid "leakage" later.) Fill nearly to the top, you may think its over-filled, but it puffs up perfectly this way. Don't be tempted to use more than 24 cupcake cups... trust me.
9. Bake for 15- 20 minutes, until golden brown and cake springs back when touched.
10. While cupcakes are baking, prepare your butter cream and root beer glaze. For glaze, put all ingredients into a bowl and mix with a wisk until smooth and lump free.
11. To assemble, start by letting cupcakes cool, still in the pan.
12. While still slightly warm, pour 1 Tbs. of root beer schnapps over each cupcake. Pour on slowly to allow schnapps ( or regular root beer for the kiddies) to soak in.
13. Once the schnapps has soaked in and let sit for a few minutes, pour a couple tablespoons of glaze over each cupcake.
14. When the glaze sets up a bit and isn't too runny, put a "scoop" of buttercream atop each. For an added touch, you can even place a root beer barrel candy on each one.

Makes 2 dozen cupcakes.
Enjoy,
A.

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