The best part about receiving a new order is coming up with ideas and flavors and eventually making a test batch (that's really the best part). I am making cupcakes, two separate "cocktail cupcake" flavors to be exact, for a lingerie shower in a couple of weeks. One flavor, I am simply adding little flair to a recipe I have used before (leaving that one a surprise, so you'll have to wait for it...). But the other flavor, I had never tried before. When that happens, I rely on my quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) team to make sure I have the best cupcake possible. The team is made up of 100% volunteers. Yet, they always there when I need them to taste cupcakes, cakes, cookies, etc. Who knew a girl could get so lucky? Ok, so maybe, it isn't so hard to find these volunteers. Especially when they are made up of my family and friends. And love sweets.
For this particular cocktail cupcakes, I made white russian cupcakes. I found a lot of recipes online, but they mostly used yellow cake for the cupcake. I wanted chocolate. For variation really. Plus, I think kahlua screams chocolate. Anyway, I guess these cupcakes should really be called "tan russian" or "dirty russian." I've heard it both ways.
To make the cupcakes, I doctored the cupcake recipe from my Flour Bakery cookbook (favorite. Buy it here. Now.), added a kahlua/vodka ganache, and topped everything off with a kahlua flavored buttercream. I wouldn't say these cupcakes really make you think "white russian" when you take that first bite, but you definitely taste the alcohol and they are simply delicious. Seriously. Don't just take my word for it, most my QC/QA team ranked them as their #1 and #2 cupcakes of all time (the #2 people are still dreaming of the guinness and bailey's cupcakes). I may add a little more of the cocktail aspect of the cupcake for the shower. I'll let you know what happens.
Thanks to all who volunteered this week ... Kristy, Brooke*, Andrew, Sandy, Denny and Bill!
*Special thanks to Brooke for taking pictures, as always, of the finished product!
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