Root Beer Cupcakes with Bourbon Cream Frosting

My husband’s birthday was yesterday.  We won’t talk age.  I told my kids my husband and I are counting backwards now.  They didn’t buy it.

I wanted to make cupcakes for my sweetie.    Originally I wanted to make Guinness cupcakes.  I’ve made them before and they are moist and delicious especially topped with an Irish Cream frosting.  But an idea came to me at the last-minute.  We love drinking bourbon cream and root beer.  Tastes just like a creamy, dreamy root beer float.  Totally delicious, totally dangerous!  You can keep drinking them and before you know it, your mind is “floating”!!!!  So I say to myself “why not turn this into a cupcake?” Thus Root beer cupcakes with Bourbon Cream Frosting is born!!!  The problem was, I was out of the bourbon cream.  This isn’t something sold at the grocery store, I had to make  a special trip to the liquor store.   Can I tell you how embarrassing it is going to get bourbon at noon on a Wednesday with your 3-year-old??  I felt like a made for TV movie.  It just felt so wrong.  When I went to the register to pay, I felt compelled to explain that this was for baking purposes only!  The woman behind the counter didn’t care.  She put my bourbon in a tell-tale brown paper bag and my daughter and I walked off.   But not before I threw in a “let’s go make cupcakes” for good measure!

Root Beer Cupcakes with Bourbon Cream Frosting

1 1/2 cups root beer

1/4 cup butter

3/4 cups cocoa

2 cups brown sugar

3/4 cup sour cream

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

2 1/2 tsp baking soda

Bourbon Cream Buttercream

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup shortening

4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tsp salt

4 tbsp Bourbon Cream liquor *

Pre heat oven to 325

Combine root beer and butter in a saucepan, once butter has melted, remove from heat.  In a separate bowl, whisk together sour cream, eggs and vanilla.  Add to cooled root beer and whisk until combined.  Add in the cocoa and the sugar, mixing well.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and the baking soda.  Add this to your root beer mixture, whisking until flour is incorporated.  Batter will be very runny, but will bake up nicely.  Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full.  I poured my batter into a large Pyrex measuring cup.  This made pouring into my cupcake liners much easier.  Bake in preheated oven for 15-17 minutes or until your cupcakes spring back when touched.  Remove from oven and let cool completely before frosting.

For the buttercream

Combine softened butter and shortening in a large mixing bowl.  Beat until very fluffy, about 10 minutes.  Add in powdered sugar one cup at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Add in the salt.  Add in your bourbon cream.  This is something you may have to taste as you go along (darn huh?).  4 tbsp to half of  my buttercream added a subtle flavor.  You may want to add more if you want the bourbon to be more pronounced.  To make this kid friendly, I added about 4 tbsp of root beer to the other half of my buttercream.  Root beer extract would be better, but the soda was just fine.  Mix buttercream until creamy.   Try to save some for the cupcakes!

* Irish Cream could be used instead of Bourbon Cream.  Kahlua would be tasty too!

cupcake portion adapted from Food Network