Hot Buttered Rum Cupcakes | FoodsOfOurLives.com
It’s time, once again, for Cupcake of the Week! I had a lot of fun with this one and really enjoyed making and eating them.
They turned out deliciously light and airy but with that twist of rum everyone loves and a delicious butterscotch sauce from David Lebovitz. I photographed them on wood pieces left from our Christmas tree a couple years ago because when I think of hot buttered rum, I think of sitting by the fire after being out all day, skiing or sledding or snowshoeing or something fun out in the snow and coming in to warm up. So although we are moving into Spring (I know many of you have been well into Spring for a while now but not us!) I just felt like going with this sort of wintery recipe.
Since I knew my children would be devouring these I did go ahead and cook the rum in the sauce but I do think that cut into the how strong it was, so if you really want a stronger rum flavor (and are serving to adults!) add the rum to the sauce at the end, I’ll include instructions for both.
At any rate, you do really get a wonderful flavor in the cupcakes themselves and they are absolutely delicious. I found the recipe at Gimme Some Oven as her Rum Cake from Scratch and just fell in love. I did have to use quite a few bowls when making the batter and I always try to use as few dishes as possible, I felt quite extravagant, but it turned out to be totally worth it and totally necessary.
One thing I did completely new was to make a swiss merengue cream cheese frosting. Never did that before, never seen that before and it’s amazing. So light and fluffy and delicious. Oh my goodness. And you end up with 3 egg whites after making the cake batter so I just used those for the frosting, waste not want not, right?
Ok well, let’s get started on the good stuff…
- FOR THE CUPCAKES
- 2½ cups all purpose flour
- ¼ cup corn starch
- 1¼ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1¾ cups granulated sugar
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- ½ cup buttermilk, room temperature
- ½ cup rum (not spiced)
- 3 tablespoons yogurt
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 6 large egg yolks, room temperature (save your extra whites for the frosting)
- 3 large egg whites, room temperature
FOR THE BUTTER RUM SAUCE - ½ cup butter
- ¼ cup water
- 1 cup white sugar
- ¼ cup rum
FOR THE BUTTERSCOTCH SAUCE - 4 tablespoons salted butter
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- ¼ cup, plus 6 tablespoons heavy cream (you will use these separately)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
FOR THE SWISS MERENGUE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING - 3 egg whites left from making the cupcakes
- 1 whole egg
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- pinch of salt
- 10 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 10 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- TO MAKE THE CUPCAKES
- Preheat your oven to 350˚ (I did not need to adjust anything for altitude, I'm at 5600').
- Prepare a cupcake pan by lining with paper liners and set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, corn starch, baking powder, salt, baking soda and 1½ cups of the sugar, set aside.
- In another medium mixing bowl (see? lots of bowls) combine the melted butter, buttermilk, rum, yogurt, vanilla, and egg yolks, set aside.
- Now. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment whisk the egg whites until just foamy, them sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup of sugar into the whites, whisk to stiff peaks.
- Now pour the stiffened whites into yet another bowl.
- Dump the flour mixture into the empty mixer bowl and pour in the rum mixture.
- Turn mixer to medium and beat until just combined, scraping the sides of the bowl at least once to ensure even mixing.
- Fold ⅓ of the egg whites into the mixture, then add the remaining whites and fold, gently, until no white streaks remain.
- Scoop about 4 tablespoons into each muffin cup and then bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.
- Remove from oven to cool on a wire rack.
TO MAKE THE BUTTER RUM SAUCE - Place the butter, water and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
- Once the butter has melted, bring the mixture to a boil for 5 minutes and then remove from heat.
- Slowly (carefully) pour the rum in, it will foam up so go slow.
- **If you want the rum to be cooked, add it in the beginning with the butter and cook it the 5 minutes.
- Set aside to cool.
TO MAKE THE BUTTERSCOTCH SAUCE - Melt the butter in a medium skillet over medium heat.
- Add the brown sugar and ¼ cup of the cream, whisk until smooth.
- Bring to a boil for 3 minutes.
- Remove from heat and add the 6 tablespoons of cream, whisk until smooth.
- Let cool for about 10 minutes and then add the vanilla.
TO MAKE THE BUTTERCREAM - Place your mixer bowl over a pan of boiling water.
- Add the egg whites, whole egg and sugar.
- Whisk until the mixture is hot and the sugar has dissolved.
- Place the bowl on the mixer stand and attach the whisk. Whisk for 10 minutes, until the mixture has cooled and is thick.
- Lower the mixer speed to medium and a tablespoon at a time, add the cream cheese and butter until it's all in there.
- Beat the mixture until smooth and then add the vanilla.
TO ASSEMBLE THE CUPCAKES - Once the buttered rum sauce and the butterscotch sauce have both cooled to room temperature you are ready to assemble.
- With a tooth pick poke holes all over the cupcakes.
- Then spoon the buttered rum sauce, a teaspoon at a time over each cupcake. I did about 4 teaspoons per cupcake.
- Let those sort of cool so the sauce dries.
- Then pipe your frosting on and drizzle with the butterscotch.
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