Deliciously Deadly. Cupcakes, that is.

Why are these cupcakes deliciously deadly, you ask? I shall tell you. They are Devil's Food cupcakes (there's your first clue) with a whiskey caramel filling (second clue) and a salted whiskey caramel buttercream frosting (final clue). As my friend so dramatically labeled them, deliciously deadly. I made up these cupcakes this past weekend for one friend's fiance and another friend's boss basically as bribes. The fiance demanded something baked with chocolate and whiskey and caramel in exchange for getting his future wife for a whole weekend and the boss wanted something delicioius in exchange for letting my friend off early so she could drive up to my place (a 7 hour drive). Of course I obliged (not that I really needed an excuse to bake something with chocolate, whiskey, and caramel--3 of my favorite things). I used a classic, reliable Devil's Food cake recipe that I wrote down a few years ago in my ever-expanding notebook of favorite recipes then made up the whiskey caramel and buttercream recipes on the spot after browsing through numerous of each on Foodgawker  (my favorite website after Facebook).

These cupcakes were a hit with my friends and their respective blackmailers. Which is good because if they hadn't turned out I would have been slightly upset about using a whole cup of one of my good whiskeys. Oh yeah...I'm a whiskey girl. We counted...I have 7 bottles of whiskey in my cupboard--though in all fairness 3 of the 7 bottles were gifts. I'd also like to point out that 1 of the 7 is a bootleg rye and it is fantastic (and approx. 180 proof--it'll knock you on your ass). Be jealous.

Devil's Food Cupcakes (makes 32 cupcakes, though you can substitute a boxed cake mix, which would make 24)

3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

3/4 cup hot water

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1  1/4 tsp coarse salt

1  1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter

2  1/4 cups sugar

4 large eggs, room temp

4 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream, room temp

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together the cocoa and hot water until smooth. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Melt butter with sugar in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to combine. Remove from heat, and pour into a mixing bowl. With an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat until mixture is cooled, 4 to 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add vanilla, then cocoa mixture, and beat until combined. Reduce mixer speed to low. Add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the sour cream, and beating until just combined after each. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to wire wracks and let cool completely before filling and frosting. Once they are completely cool, fill with whiskey caramel filling (recipe below) and top with salted whiskey caramel buttercream (recipe also below). When you're done making the whiskey caramel filling, reserve 1/3 cup of it to use in the buttercream frosting--the rest evenly distribute as cupcake filling. I find with this caramel sauce the easiest way to fill them is to cut little cone shapes down through the top of each cupcake and spoon filling in (and of course, eat the little cones while you're doing so).



Whiskey Caramel Filling

1 cup whiskey (better quality will equal better tasting caramel, just saying; I recommend Jack Daniels)

1 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

Heat a medium saucepan over medium heat. Slowly add whiskey and half of the butter, stirring until butter melts. If you use a gas stove just remember that alcohol is flammable--be careful when adding the whiskey! I'd hate for these deliciously deadly cupcakes to actually become literally deadly (on that note, you also should not feed these to recovering alcoholics or people born with fetal alcohol syndrome or people who are allergic to alcohol). Next stir in the sugar and stir continuously until the sugar melts. Add the rest of the butter. Stir until the butter melts and continue to slowly stir until the caramel becomes thick (I stirred for around 10 minutes or so). Be careful not to scorch it. Pour the caramel into a heat-proof bowl and place uncovered in the fridge to thicken, about 1 hour. If you don't let the caramel thicken enough, it'll be super messy when you try to fill your cupcakes and the cupcakes will just absorb it throughout, instead of leaving you a nice, creamy center of delicious filling.

Salted Whiskey Caramel Buttercream

1 cup salted butter, room temp

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp heavy cream

1/3 cup whiskey caramel filling (recipe above)

Beat butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt until incorporated. Increase speed and whip 2-3 minutes, until smooth and creamy. Beat in heavy cream, then caramel sauce. Whip on high until light, smooth, and fluffy. Pipe onto filled cupcakes.

Salt River Bars. OMG.

So I just got home from a beautiful two hour hike at the state park south of town. Beautiful hike on a beautiful day. And it reminded  me of a funny story (though some of my friends may not find it quite as funny as me). A few summers ago, while still in high school, I took 3 friends on a 7 mile canoe trip down river. I love kayaking and canoeing, but Megan, Nikki, and Kelsey, the friends I brought with me, were not particularly experienced. But regardless, off we went on a beautiful summer day, and for the most part the trip went pretty smoothly.

That is, until we reach a set of rapids. Long story short, Meg and I decide we're adventurous and going to paddle over them, and we end up getting stuck. We tell the other girls to hang back while we try to get out. But they let the river's strong current pull their canoe up against ours and get stuck as well. Meg and I decide to get out of our canoe and try to pull it loose, so we tell Kelsey and Nikki to be ready. Meg and I pull our canoe loose, and in movie-like slow motion I see the other canoe starting to tip. I let go of my canoe (and Megan is just a wisp of a girl--I don't know how she held on to it herself) and lunge for the other canoe as it flips and throws Kelsey and Nikki into the water. Meg is yelling, I am yelling, there's a few seconds of utter chaos--and then Kelsey and Nikki both pop up a little ways downriver past the rapids. I let go of their canoe so I can help Meg get ours down the rest of the way. Their canoe rolls down the rapids, filling with water as it goes, and then lodges against a fallen tree at the bottom of the rapids, half submerged in water. Mind you, this is not MY canoe, this canoe belongs to a nearby state park. Well, shit. After getting our canoe to the beach and making sure Kelsey and Nikki are ok, I go to the other canoe, which is slowly bending in half at the middle from the force of the river's current. I am so screwed. I can't get the canoe out of the water myself, and have to wait for the DNR officer to come later that afternoon at our scheduled pick-up time (oh yeah, because my cell phone was in that canoe that is now half buried in the river). Fortunately, when the DNR officer comes to get the canoes, he decides to call it an accident and not make us pay to replace the canoe. THANK. GOD.   

So, what does that story have to do with salt river bars? Ok, so here's the thing you have to know about me: I tend to have very random thought processes and connections that don't make sense to anyone but me. This is how this post came to be: I was hiking across a set of rapids at the state park today which made me think of that canoe trip which made me think of the river which made me think of river bars. So rapids > canoe trip > river > salt river bars. Which are sinfully delicious and ridiculously easy to make. And which will now make my two hour hike today null and void. But I don't care, because they are that good. So here is the recipe:

SALT RIVER BARS

1 box Club crackers (I've used Saltines before but I don't think they taste as good)
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1 cup peanut butter chips
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips
Coarse sea salt (or fleur de sel if you want to be fancy/spend more money than me today)

Line an 8x8-inch pan with foil, allowing the edges to hang over the side, and lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray (this is VERY important because these bars are VERY sticky when setting). Place 15ish crackers in the bottom of the pan (3 rows of 5). For three layers, divide the peanut butter chips into thirds and sprinkle 1/3 over the crackers. Melt butter and brown sugar in a pan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until bubbly and smooth and a creamy caramel color, about 4ish minutes (another thing to learn about me--I'm tend to be a "just wing it" person who doesn't necessarily time or perfectly measure). Pour 1/3 of the caramel over the peanut butter chips and crackers, then add another layer of crackers, peanut butter chips, and caramel, then repeat again for the third layer, topping the last layer with crackers. Melt the chocolate chips and pour over the crackers, spreading evenly. Sprinkle coarse sea salt over the top. Allow chocolate to start setting in refrigerator (about 30 minutes), then lightly cut through the partially-set chocolate (VERY imporant-once these babies set all the way through they can be verrrry hard to cut if you don't do this first). Place bars back into the fridge. Once cooled completely (about 3 hours), remove bars by lifting out foil. Cut accordingly and serve. Store in a sealed container a week (as if they'd last that long, HA). OMG. So good.