The birthday girl eating one of the cupcakes
When I asked the lovely Linsy what type of cupcakes she wanted for her 30th birthday party (Happy Birthday Linsy!), she was pretty quick to say that she wanted Root Beer Float. I did some hunting online and found a recipe from My Sweet Gems and we did a test run (of only 6 cupcakes). We were mostly happy but wanted more root beer flavour in the cupcake part and weren’t sure the filling was right. We liked that there was filling, but I thought it was far too sweet (in addition to frosting AND glaze). So I kept looking, found some more recipes, and am now using parts of three separate recipes to make these absolutely fantastic cupcakes, worthy of the birthday girl!
CUPCAKES adapted from Serendipity Mommy
Ingredients:
1 Cup Root beer Soda (NOT DIET). I used Stewart’s Fountain Classics Root Beer.
1 Tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
3/4 Cup Sugar
1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
3 Tsp Root Beer Concentrate/Extract
1 1/3 Cups Flour
3/4 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine root beer and vinegar. Let stand for about 5 minutes
3. Add the sugar and oil. Whisk until frothy and the sugar has been absorbed.
4. Mix in the Vanilla & Root Beer concentrate.
5. In a sperate bowl, mix together the flour, baking power, baking soda and salt.
6. Slowly add the flour mixture to the liquids while mixing. Be careful not to over mix.
7. Fill your cupcake liners about 3/4 full. Because this batter is fairly runny, I found that putting the batter into a plastic baggie and then cutting the corner off and piping the batter into my mini cupcake liners. I had enough batter for 33 mini cupcakes. NOTE: The batter does not rise a lot, so filling the liners quite full is a very good idea.
8. Bake for 18 minutes (or until a tooth pick inserted into the cupcake comes out clean).
Don't they look delicious?!
VANILLA CREAM FILLING adapted from Group Recipes:
Ingredients:
3 Tbsp Flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter (unsalted)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 scraped vanilla bean
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
1. Whisk together flour and milk in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook until thick. (This will only take a few minutes). Make sure to stir continuously to prevent the mixture from burning or clumping. Once thickened (to the consistency of pudding), remove from heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
2. Cut the butter into small cubes and add to the slightly warm milk/flour mixture. Mix well.
3. Add the sugar, vanilla extract and vanilla bean seeds. Beat well (an electric mixer is really useful here) until it is light and fluffy.
Self-portrait with cupcake.
ICE CREAM FROSTING adapted from Better Homes and Gardens:
Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup vanilla ice cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups icing sugar
1 tbsp Whipping Cream
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer until fluffy.
3. Beat in the ice cream and the vanilla.
4. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar.
5. Add the whipping cream until the frosting is the right consistency.
One more picture of the cupcakes because they were SO TASTY
Ingredients:
3 tbsp icing sugar
Milk to consistency.