As documented in my post about my caramel appletini cupcakes, I have had to develop a relationship with the tiny liquor store in Clermont as part of my boozy bakes series. The proprietor of this slightly seedy establishment has greeted all of my questions like “will the alcohol in this tequila cook out in a pastry cream?” and “will the sour apple flavor in this schnapps come through in a fatless sponge batter?” with a blank stare and a deep sigh. He really needs to watch the GBBO and get on my level. These chocolate fireball whiskey cupcakes also necessitated a trip to this little shop.
When I impulsively added a small bottle of fireball whiskey to my most recent purchase, I definitely detected an eye roll. Yes, it is a slightly basic freshman-at-a-frat-party liquor, but hey. It’s got cinnamon, and it’s cheap. (That teaching salary, though.) I knew I could work with this. So, I went home and figured out these funky cupcakes, and I like them. They are pretty unusual, but they’ve got the yum factor!
I’ve been watching reruns of the Kids Baking Championship lately, and I just….cannot. This says nothing good about me, but I am SUPER judgey when watching competition shows, especially ones featuring kids. I know. They’re children. I should probably be impressed that they can make cupcakes or whatever. But, come on. They just had a macaron episode, and NONE of them worked out. I often find myself rolling my eyes and feeling aggressively confrontational, muttering things along the lines of “how did they even get on this show?” and have to remind myself that they are seven years old and this is a fun television show where they all hug each other after every event.
If I were on the show, I would not hug. I would glare.
I’m pretty competitive. It’s a problem for me.
However, one of the kids on a recent show made a pastry cream with cinnamon and cloves, and that seemed like a pretty good idea to me (she admitted grudgingly), so I decided to incorporate that concept into these little firebombs.
Chocolate Fireball Whiskey Cupcakes: the elements.
Newsflash: Fireball doesn’t actually taste much like…cinnamon? It tastes like redhot candies, it kind of burns. I’m making it sound really appealing, right? But seriously, that intense concentrated flavor really works well with these chocolate cupcakes. It balances with the chocolate and the creamy texture of both the pastry cream filling and the simple buttercream to create a complex bite. If you want to skip adding so much ground cinnamon, you can use an extract like this one.
In my first test of the sponge recipe, I included a quarter cup of the whiskey right in the batter, tasted it, thought it was a punchy flavor that merged well with the chocolate, and baked it. Unfortunately, that cinnamon flavor mostly cooked out. I could’ve just given in and resorted to a fireball frosting, but I really wanted the signature flavor in the sponge, so I decided to try again. The second attempt, I had a serious discussion with my jar of ground cinnamon and stepped up that flavor with cinnamon and cloves right in the batter, and we had a winner. Don’t be afraid of the amount of cinnamon in the sponge, you need a heavy-hitting spice level to compete with the intensity of chocolate.
The pastry cream was very fun to make. That is where you are getting the true FIREBALL WHISKEY flavor. If you don’t want any alcohol burn, you can cook the whiskey before adding the other ingredients to dilute that affect. If you do like that little alcohol flavor, don’t cook all of the alcohol out, simple as that.
I’ve been trying to get fancy with my cupcake piping, so I took to youtube to drum up some new ideas. If you are interested in cake decorating and tutorials, you need to be watching Cupcake Jemma. She is incredibly knowledgeable, has beautiful and creative baking tutorials, and has a really quirky personality. Also, all of the people that work in her bakery seem to be inhumanly beautiful and walk through the background of her videos regularly, so that’s a plus. I checked out her cupcake piping video and made some little rose swirls. I’m not an expert though, look to Jemma for a quick tutorial.
I made my buttercream white, but if you want to suggest the fiery flavor, feel free to add some food coloring and make it red!
Want more boozy bakes? This is the fifth in a series.
Check out these other boozy bakes:
Pineapple Upside Down Pina Colada Cupcakes!
Interested in ordering these Chocolate Fireball Whiskey Cupcakes or another recipe from Kelly Likes to Bake?
Email me at kellylikestobake@gmail.com for pricing and info!
Chocolate Fireball Whiskey Cupcakes: It’s silly, delicious, and tastes like college.
Course: DessertCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Medium18
Cupcakes30
minutes30
minutes300
kcalIngredients
- Cake Batter
250 g Ap flour
75 g Cocoa powder
350 g Granulated Sugar,
1 Tsp. Baking soda
1 Tsp. Baking Powder
1 Tsp. Sea Salt,
3 T cinnamon
1/2 t cloves
2 Large eggs, room temp
1/2 C brewed coffee
1/2 C Fireball Whiskey
1 C Buttermilk,
1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil.
- Pastry Cream
100 g granulated sugar
30 g cornstarch cornstarch
Scrapings of 1 vanilla bean
1 pinch salt
1 T cinnamon
1/4 t cloves
3 egg yolks
100 ml milk
70 ml cream
30 ml fireball
- Vanilla Buttercream
2.5 sticks unsalted butter
4 cups powdered sugar
pinch of salt
3 T heavy whipping cream
2 t vanilla extract
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- Make your cake batter. Put your cocoa powder in a big mixing bowl. Zap your coffee in the microwave for 60 seconds, then pour it over the cocoa powder and mix to combine. Add the sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and salt, whisk. Add your eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the remaining wet ingredients, mix well to combine. Combine your dry ingredients in a separate bowl, and whisk them together. Add them to the wet ingredients in two portions, gently folding it in both times. Do not overmix. Spoon into a prepared cupcake tin equipped with cupcake liners and cooking spray, filling each cupcake liner about 3/4 full. Bake for 15 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- While the cupcakes are baking, make your pastry cream. Put your egg yolks, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and sugar in a bowl, and whisk to combine. Set aside. Put the whiskey in a saucepan. Cook it over medium-high heat for a few minutes (2-3) to eliminate some of the alcohol flavor. Meanwhile in a small bowl, mix the cornstarch with about half of the milk to make a slurry. Mix vigorously to try to eliminate lumps. Add the cornstarch mixture, milk, and cream to the whiskey on the stove. Heat until it JUST starts to bubble, then remove from the heat. Whisking constantly, add a small spoonful of the milk mixture to the eggs, tempering them. When it is mixed, add a little more. Whisk thoroughly. Add the rest of the milk, whisk until completely combined. Put the pastry cream back in the saucepan, and put it back on the stove at medium heat. Whisking frequently, heat until it thickens to a pudding-like consistency. Cool in the fridge until completely cool. You can strain it through a sieve if you wish to get rid of any lumps of egg or cornstarch, but it is going inside your cupcakes, so, you know. You can skip this if you don’t really care about lumps. (I don’t care about lumps, just being honest.)
- Make your buttercream frosting. Paddle the butter until it is fluffy. Add half the sugar, the vanilla, and the salt. Mix until combined. Add the rest of the sugar and the cream. Mix until combined. Put it in a piping bag fitted with a tip of your choice. (Or you can just shovel it on with a knife, no big deal.)
- Core your cupcakes with a sharp knife or a circle cutter. Fill each cupcake with the pastry cream, piped in with a ziplock bag or a piping bag. Frost the cupcakes. Eat them!
I love boozy bakes! It sounds delicious 😀