cupcake hero: liquor and baby cupcake hero!

as if february wasn't busy enough i participated in not one but two cupcake hero competitions.

my entry for cupcake hero: liquor was cuba libra cupcakes. i would like to claim that i baked these cupcakes after Fidel Castro stepped down, but alas it is purely coincidence. one of my favourite drinks is a cuba libre. i suppose it may be because i only drink them at the beach on a carribean island, so you'll have to picture the sound of the ocean when eating these cupcakes. since Ccnada does not have a trade embargo with cuba it is a very popular vacation destination for canadians. cuba libre cocktails are a popular drink at all the resorts and consist of coke, rum, and lime.

recipe:

rum and lime cupcakes

3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter
1 cup milk
3 eggs
2 tbsp rum
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp
3 zest of limes

put lime zest and sugar into food processor and pulse until well combined. mix sugar and rest of dry ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer. add butter and let mixer run until butter is broken down into pieces no larger than a pea. meanwhile add approximately 1/4 cup of the milk. once butter is combined add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and rum to remaining milk and add mixture slowly will the mixer is still running. scrap down the sides, add sprinkles to batter, and mix until batter is smooth. bake at 350 until toothpick comes out clean (between 18-22 minutes).

rum and coke buttercream

1 can of coke
4.5 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup trans fat free crisco
2 tbsp rum
1 tsp vanilla

place coke in a saucepan and reduce over medium heat until volume has decreased to 1/4 cup. place powdered sugar and in bowl of mixer and pour the hot reduced coke over top. add rum and vanilla. mix at high speed using whip attachment until mixture is cooled to room temperature. add butter and crisco then whip at high speed for 10 minutes.

NOTE: while these cupcakes are delicious they didn't quite turn out as close to the cocktail as I had hoped. i need to find a way to get the buttercream to taste more like actual coke.



my entry for baby cupcake hero was vanilla confetti cupcakes with grape kool aid buttercream frosting. my baby cupcake hero entry could have gone either way. i was thinking wholesome ingredients, but then I thought nah, babies only have one first birthday party! so I decided to go fun and artificial all the way. nothing pleased me more as a child than having sprinkles on top of just about anything, and grape drink just seems to be one of those flavours that as is associated with childhood, so i decided to use both in my baby cupcake hero entry.

vanilla confetti cupcakes

- add 1/4 cup of rainbow non-pareils to the batter of any good vanilla cupcake and bake.

grape kool aid buttercream

2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
4 single serving grape kool aid packets
1/4 cup boiling water
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup trans fat free crisco

place powdered sugar and kool aid in bowl of mixer and pour boiling water over top. mix at high speed using whip attachment until mixture is cooled to room temperature. add butter and crisco then whip at high speed for 10 minutes. add optional blue food colouring.

frost cooled cupcakes and let the smashing commence!