30 Jack Daniels Cupcakes

Another birthday. Another reason to place my cupcakes in the loving hands of the United States Postal Service. And finally a reason to use the recipe for Dark Chocolate and Jack Daniels Cupcakes that I found ages ago on pinterest. The way it works is, upon request, I will bake cupcakes for any one's birthday. My only response is "what kind do you want?" This birthday is a little different. I knew it was coming up and that this particular person is a big fan of Jack Daniels. Knowing that I had this recipe hiding away, and despite that he doesn't particularly care for sweets, just like every other oncoming birthday, I was determined to bake. Who doesn't love getting packages in the mail? Who doesn't love birthday cakes... in miniature?! NOBODY... that's who.

I didn't have any real hold ups at the grocery store. My shopping list consisted of the required dark chocolate, heavy cream, your choice of three puddings, and Jack Daniels, of course. For the dark chocolate I got 4 bars of Ghirardelli 72% Dark Chocolate. They were only 3.5 oz, but I figured it would be close enough, and it didn't cause any real problems later, anyway. As for my choice of pudding, I went with white chocolate. I wanted to stick with the whole general chocolate flavor. After a quick, and more expensive than I was expecting, trip to the liquor store, I was the proud owner of an average sized bottle of Jack Daniels. You can probably get one of the smaller sized bottles that they keep behind the counter.

The morning you plan on baking these cupcakes, skip the second cup of coffee at home, you'll need it. Sometimes, you need that second cup (like I did). I just used some instant coffee we happened to have and it worked just as well. I love making chocolate cupcakes recipes with coffee in them. If you don't like coffee, don't pass over these kinds of recipes. You don't taste the coffee at all. I'm not sure how it works, but the coffee works its magic (I'm pretty sure it's the same magic that wakes you up in the morning) and makes the chocolate super chocolaty and rich. I would recommend mixing these up in a large measuring cup. The batter turns out really runny. You'll be able to just pour the batter right into the cups instead of scooping it out and risk making an even bigger mess than the one that just naturally happens while you're baking. The recipe says to fill the liner half full. This worked perfectly. None of my cupcakes baked over. I think that's a new record.

When it came to the ganache, this was where I thought we might run into problems. When I read through the steps, it just seemed like where the recipe might hit a bump. It was super easy and super problem-less. The icing was simple too, like icing usually is. It was soo whippy. I loved it! I added a little extra Jack to the icing, since my friend requested they taste boozy. After I took the 2 cups of ganache out for the icing, there wasn't very much left over. I was afraid it wouldn't be enough to fill the cupcakes with. When I cored them, I didn't want to make it too deep. But, the cupcakes were super moist, so they stuck to the corer. I would recommend using a knife to cut a divot out of them instead. I had enough ganache to fill them without having to scrape the bowl for every little bit. Since the icing got really fluffy, I had plenty to do all the cupcakes.

Super Whippy Icing

These cupcakes turned out awesome. The super dark chocolate was the perfect compliment to the Jack Daniels. Even people who aren't fans of dark chocolate should give these a try. I was nervous the taste of the whiskey would get lost in the chocolate, but you could taste it in every element of the cupcake. The only negative thing about these cupcakes is that since the icing should be refrigerated, the ganache gets hard. They're best served at room temperature. Whether you love Jack Daniels or not, these cupcakes are worth a shot.

All Packed Up!!

A Few Days Later...

These cupcakes got mailed a little further than the outskirts of Pennsylvania and into New Jersey. With the super hot weather we had the 2 days it took the cupakes to arrive, I was a little nervous that the icing wouldn't hold up so well. As reported, the icing was just really melty, since it's mostly butter, that made sense. After a little time in the fridge, everything was fine and the cupcakes were assembled and enjoyed.





Jack Daniels Cupcakes Ingredients
2 c flour
3/4 c cocoa powder
2 c sugar
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 c super strong coffee
1 c buttermilk
1/2 c Jack Daniels
1/2 c vegetable oil

How to
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. In a large bowl, stir flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, coffee, whiskey, buttermilk, and oil
4. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and whisk until smooth
5. Fill cupcake cup 1/2 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Cool completely.

Dark Chocolate Whiskey Ganache Ingredients
16 oz good quality dark chocolate 65-72%, cut into small pieces, 1/4 in or less

Ganache

3/4 c heavy cream
1/4 c Jack Daniels
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened

How to
1. Place chocolate in a heat proof bowl, set aside
2. Heat heavy cream until just boiling. Pour over chocolate.
3. Cover chocolate and cream for 2 minutes to allow chocolate to soften. Uncover and stir with whisk until smooth and silky. Stir in butter until fully incorporated. Stir in whiskey until incorporated. Cool completely.

Ganache Filled Cupcakes

Icing
1 lb unsalted butter, softened
1 3 oz package white chocolate, vanilla, or cheesecake instant pudding mix
2 c Dark Chocolate Whiskey Ganache
1/2 c sifted dark cocoa powder
1/2 c heavy cream
1/2 c powdered sugar
more whiskey to taste

How to
1. In a stand mixer beat the butter and pudding mix together on medium high speed for 5 minutes.
2. Turn off, add ganache, cocoa, and heavy cream. Beat another 5 minutes.
3. Add powdered sugar a little at a time, tasting as you go until it is sweet enough, then beat on medium high for 5 minutes.
4.If it isn't a strong enough whiskey taste for you, add tablespoon by tablespoon of whiskey until it is your liking.

8 Apple Pie Cupcakes

It's been forever since I've made cupcakes just for whatever. No birthday. No last day. No occasion at all. Just because I felt moved to bake. And for that reason, I could use a recipe that made only a few cupcakes. I'm always worried about everyone getting a cupcake, so I always try to make at least 2 dozen. Not today! As my sister and I flipped through the pages of a cupcake recipe book, only a few of the recipes caught our attention for this not-occasion. We set our hearts on these particular cupcakes for a few reasons: 1. The recipe only makes 8. 2. They sounded tasty (like any cupcake recipe of your choosing should) 3. They looked pretty easy and 4. These were nothing like a normal cupcake.

The only ingredients for these cupcakes that I didn't have were apples and cinnamon rolls, the two main ingredients. The recipe says to grease the inside of muffin pans. I obviously used paper liners in mine, since that is kinda the purpose of the blog. It didn't cause any problems and it would probably be more helpful if you had to bring them somewhere. My sister and I each peeled an apple. I got mine peeled all in one piece! The peelings make excellent bunny treats too.

We chopped the apples into little tiny pieces, since they were for little cupcakes and not a big pie. I try to shy away from using the stove when I make cupcakes. I'm a baker, but not a cook by far. So my sister cooked up the apples with no problems at all. We didn't use the juice of half a lemon, since there were no actual lemons in this recipe. We just added the recommended 4 1/2 teaspoons.

While she did that, I made the crumbly topping. I used softened butter. Don't do that, use cold butter. And don't try and avoid getting messy by using a fork, use your hands and have fun.

Get messy... Have fun!

For the cinnamon roll crust, I just opened up the can and squashed the rolls with the palm of my hand. When I put the cinnamon rolls into the liners, we just pushed them all the way into the bottom of the cups and squished the edges to make them go to the tops of the papers. My sister scooped the apples into the crusts. There was plenty to fill them up. I crumbled the topping on top of the apples, and there was plenty of that too. We baked them for 11 minutes, right in the middle of the suggested time.

These cupcakes should be called cup-pies. The recipe says to top it off with whipped cream and caramel sauce. But... nothing goes better with apple pie than vanilla ice cream. It worked out perfect because neither my sister, mom, nor I had the patience to wait and eat these cupcakes. We all sat in the living room with our ice cream topped cupcakes like a cupcake discussion group."What do you think about these?" "What do they taste like?" "The walnuts add a little something." They were weird to eat with a spoon, but the cinnamon roll crust would definitely make them easy to hold to eat like a normal cupcake. They taste exactly like an apple pie. The lemon juice in the granny smith apples keep them tart through cooking them. The walnuts gave a good little crunch to the crumblies. All apple pies should have cinnamon roll crusts. These cupcakes were super simple to make. They were worth the amount of work for how few cupcakes they made, but the fact that these were incredibly delicious makes it a billion times more worth it.

Cooked Up Apples

Apple Filling
2 tablespoons butter
2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, chopped
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
Juice of 1/2 lemon (about 4 1/2 teaspoons)

Topping
2 tablespoons unsalted butter


Squished Cinnamon Rolls

1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Base
1 can (12.4 oz) Pillsbury refrigerated cinnamon rolls with icing

Garnish
Whipped cream topping (from aerosol can)
Caramel-flavored syrup (from bottle)

Cupcake How to
1. Heat oven to 400. Spray 8 regular-size muffin cups with cooking spray. In 10-inch skillet, melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium high heat. Cook apples in butter 5 minutes. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons brown sugar, the cinnamon and salt. Cook 5 minutes longer until tender. Stir in lemon juice.
2. In small bowl, mix topping ingredients with fork or hands until crumble. Separate dough into 8 roll. (Set icing aside for another use.) Flatten each roll into 4-inch round; place in muffin cups. Divide filling among cups. Sprinkle evenly with topping.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until bubbly. Cool 2 minutes; remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool completely. Garnish with whipped cream and syrup.

Apple Peelings Are One of Ozzie's
Favorite Treats

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