Butter Rum Cupcakes (with only one stick of butter!)

Cupcake Batter (makes 24):

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup vanilla instant pudding mix (JELLO)
1/2 cup 2% milk (or similar)
1 stick of butter
3 eggs
1/2 cup dark rum (I used Myers)
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup butterscotch schnapps

Baked at 325 degrees in a muffin tin with cupcake liners (I used the generic silver safeway brand ones, and they work spectacularly)

Based on the recipe by the mistress of spices. 


Directions:

• Mix all of the powdered ingredients in a very large bowl
• Beat the eggs in a notquiteaslargebutstillsubstantiallylarge bowl
• Add the rest of the wet ingredients into the bowl with the eggs and beat together until uniform
• Slowly stir the liquid into the powder bowl, and mix thoroughly
• You can add butterscotch chips to the batter before you put them in the pan, but the cupcakes really don't need it :)
• Put cupcake liners into a muffin tin and fill cupcake liners about halfway up.
• Bake for a little under 20 minutes or until the toothpick/corn cob holder/testing stick comes out clean :)

Butterscotch Butter Cream Icing
1 lbs powdered sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 stick of butter
1/3 cup vanilla pudding instant mix
2 tbsp of milk (I used 2%, but we use buttermilk or coffee cream or skim here sometimes as well)
1/4 cup butterscotch schnapps
1 tablespoon butterscotch chips




Directions

• Combine powdered sugar, pudding mix, and brown sugar in a bowl.  Feel free to skimp on the pudding mix- i didnt use all of the mix i poured.
• Melt down the butter in a microwave safe container, and add in the schnapps and beat in with the powdered sugar and vanilla.
• Slowly add in the milk as needed.  to move the consistency from sticky to lighter
• When the icing is uniform, melt the butterscotch chips to the point that they are crumbly pieces or liquid, and beat them into the icing.

[side note]
I HATE BAKING CUPCAKES!  They are very time-consuming baked goods; im usually more of a play with the batter recipe and pour it all into a pan for bars kinda girl :)  Having said that, I do have a ton of cupcake liners, and these were described by some of my co-workers as the best cupcakes ever created in the history of mankind.  I was actually extremely happy with both the cakes and the icing, which usually doesn't happen with me.   I always love one and am "meh" on the other, but for these I'm quite gaga over both.  You get the great rum flavor of the myers with the butterscotch, and the icing is all about the butterscotch booze sweetness.

I put those gold sprinkles you can get on top of them because I'm a fan of sprinkles, and they didnt really affect the flavor which is nice.  I know I need to work on my presentation skills more, but I'm ready to call this the best experimental baking success yet.  It was extremely time consuming to look for recipes and sift through what google had as far as butter rum goes, because most people do drunken rum cakes that take a very long time.  I found a couple good recipe starting point candidates before deciding to go for the one i changed above.  I was EXTREMELY nervous about cooking with ginger because it smells so strong, but it was quite subtle in the cupcake, and played very nicely with the other flavors.  I might even up it to a 1/2 teaspoon next time I try the recipe.