Root Beer Cupcakes

Hi. I have a little math quiz for you.

My brother winning first place in a county writing competition (so proud!) [plus] the fact that my brother loves root beer (the nonalcoholic beverage of course!) [equals] …

Root beer cupcakes!

Fact: Root Beer Frosting is heavenly. Like, lick-your-fingers-and-the-whisks-and-the-bowl-heavenly.

Fact: I had no intention of watching The Royal Wedding but did anyway because everyone was getting a hernia over it. Call me old fashioned (and Muslim), but weddings nowadays have lost their charm because of all these prenuptial relationships (a person doesn’t exactly require marriage in order to conceive a child nowadays, if you catch my drift). I feel like since they were already together for 8 years (doing God knows what), it wasn’t really… “magical”, albeit an admittedly magnificent wedding altogether.

Back to the cupcakes! I bought root beer concentrate a while ago because they were non-alcoholic and I figured one day I’d probably make something for my brother, who happens to be a root beer aficionado, with it. These cupcakes couldn’t have turned out better (in my humble opinion).

The original recipe called for vanilla frosting and root beer filling (kind of like a root beer float), but I kind of misunderstood it and just went with root beer frosting. I regret nothing. Although I probably will try it one day.

It’s a root beer party in your mouth. Enjoy!

Root Beer Cupcakes (adapted from How Sweet It Is)
makes 12 cupcakes

• 1 1/8 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup dark cocoa powder (I didn’t have dark cocoa powder so I used my regular unsweetened cocoa powder with a few pieces of dark chocolate…worked out great)
• 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons root beer concentrate
• 1/3 cup root beer
• 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a bowl, whisk egg and sugar until smooth and no lumps remain. Add cream, butter and vanilla, and mix until combined. Stir in sour cream. Sift dry ingredients together and add to wet mixture. Add root beer concentrate and root beer. Mix until batter is smooth. Line a muffin tin with liners and using a heaping 1/4 cup measure, add batter to each cup. Bake for 15-18 minutes. Let cool before frosting.

Root Beer Frosting

• 1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1/2 teaspoon root beer extract
• Optional: I added a teeny bit of molasses

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter until smooth. On low speed, add powdered sugar one cup at a time, increasing speed to bring the frosting together. Add milk and vanilla extract. Beat until smooth. Add root beer extract to remaining frosting in the bowl and beat until it comes together.