22 Moscato Cupcakes

Another very happy birthday for one of my best friends. My friends are getting very vague about what they want. They just say whatever. Since it's near Valentine's day and these cupcakes were on my poll, I went with the Moscato cupcakes.

All I needed to do was make a trip to the liquor store to pick up my cheap bottle of wine. I spent about $7 on a normal sized bottle. They also had little 4-packs of Moscato if you're worried about having a practically full bottle of wine open. You may also have to pick up a pack of strawberries if you choose to garnish your cupcakes with some fresh fruit.

Dry Ingredients

 

These cupcakes are really easy to bake. It's the usual add wet ingredients to dry ingredients thing. Now if you don't have buttermilk around, don't worry about going out and buying some. You can substitute it with stuff I'm sure you already have. All that it takes is a tablespoon of either lemon juice or white vinegar and then add enough milk to make it a full cup. I know that the recipe only calls for 3/4 cup of buttermilk, but missing out on a quarter cup of milk is a lot cheaper than having to buy buttermilk for one recipe. Just let buttermilk mix sit for about 5 minutes. I made it first, before I did anything else with these cupcakes. All the wet ingredients mixed together look like a crazy science experiment. I just poured a little of the wet ingredients into the dry just so the powdery mix didn't poof all over me, then I  just let the mixer turned on low and slowly added the rest of the wet ingredients.

 

Science-y Wet Ingredients

The recipe says that it will make 12-18 cupcakes and that you should fill them 3/4 full. I could tell when I spooned out the batter that these cupcakes were going to be dense. I under filled my cupcakes since I was planning on bringing them to work and that small number of cupcakes simply would not feed the masses. If you're not planning on feeding a whole staff then go ahead and fill up those cupcakes! The ones that were a little more full than others baked up perfectly. They didn't spill over, only domed up beautifully. Even though I made more cupcakes, they still baked longer than what the recipe called for. I had them in for and extra 8 minutes or so.

I mixed up the icing according to the recipe. I was afraid that it wouldn't be enough for the extra cupcakes I baked and tasting it, I thought it was too buttery and not sweet enough. I added about a 3/4 cup of extra powdered sugar. This made the icing really thick, but I just spread it on the cupcakes as it was. I could have used another teaspoon or so of Moscato to thin it out so it would be easier to pipe. Lastly, I garnished these cupcakes with colored sugar sprinkles. I put each cupcake, one by one, on a Styrofoam plate and spooned the sugar over them, I shook off the excess, then when I was all done, I dumped the extra sugar back in the container.

As predicted, these cupcakes were really dense. Although they weren't fluffy like I usually want my cupcakes, they were still delicious. You could faintly taste the Moscato in the icing. I should have added more but hind sight is always 20/20. There was very little of the wine taste in the cupcakes as a whole, but the cupcakes were still a hit.

So after all that, if you're left wondering what to do with your leftover Moscato, it goes well with cheeses, cured meat, and perfectly enough, sweets!

Moscato Cupcake Ingredients
2 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 c sugar
1 c canola or vegetable oil
1/3 c Moscato
3/4 c buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 tsp white vinegar
Strawberries or sprinkles for garnish

Cupcake How to
1. Preheat over to 350. Put cupcake liners in 2 cupcake pans. This recipe should make 12-18 cupcakes depending on the size of your pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar, and whisk together. In another bowl, combine oil, Moscato, buttermilk, eggs, and vinegar. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until it is just blended.
3. Scoop the batter into the prepared cupcake pans, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely on wire racks before frosting with Moscato vanilla icing.

Moscato Vanilla Icing Ingredients
8 oz (1 c) butter, room temperature
3 Tbsp Moscato
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 c powdered sugar

Icing How to
In a large bowl, cream butter with an electric mixer until it is smooth and fluffy. Add in the Moscato and vanilla and continue mixing until combined. Add the icing sugar 1/2 cup at a time, mixing until smooth and light. Frost the cooled cupcakes and garnish.

from brooke-bakes.blogspot.com