Bourbon Ball Stuffed Cupcakes

 

Yes, you read that right.

 

This weeks Sunday Cupcakery was inspired by my cousin. I’ve been suffering from a lack of imagination… and he suggested these. I was a little wary after I made the Jack Daniels cupcakes. But, I’m not one to shy away from a challenge.

 

Firstly I had to find a recipe for bourbon balls, which wasn’t really a problem. Apparently they’re a pretty common “treat” for the holidays? The problem I ran into was finding a bourbon. Seriously… Bourbon/ Whisk(e)y, Scotch, TN Whiskey, Canadian Whiskey, Rye… It was all sort of confusing. I spent a whole afternoon doing “research” online, and asked a few friends.

Eventually I picked the WT, went to the liquor store and then let my husband convince me to try the American Honey. It seems sweeter then the regular WT (Duh, from the honey), and pretty smooth. AND to be totally honest… I didn’t want to use regular Wild Turkey, as it has some interesting college memories attached to it (Thanks KS). I used to gag when I had to serve it to customers. Not this time!

 

Ooops… before I get to distracted I’ll get to the point…

 

The bourbon balls are from The Joy of Baking. I used Walnut instead of Pecans, and American Honey instead of plain bourbon. I also made my balls bigger (I guess), because the recipe said you should get 36! This is one of those recipes when you REALLY want a food processor. My walnuts and Nila wafer definitely weren’t chopped as fine as they could have been, and I’m guessing that’s part of the reason I had trouble getting my bourbon balls to stick together. It wasn’t a big deal, I ended up damping my hands, and rolling the balls between my palms. This is the point where you would cover them in melted chocolate, powdered sugar, or more chopped nuts… but because I was going to stuff them into cupcakes, I left them plain. Store them in the fridge over night … the bourbon flavor will really come out…

 

The cupcake batter is based on of this yellow cake from All Recipes. It’s yummy! I just subbed out half of the milk for Wild Turkey American Honey. You can taste just a hint of it in the cake. For once, I got exactly 24 cupcakes! Tah-Dah!

 

The frosting… is interesting. It’s definitely too sweet, and it’s not fluffy like a buttercream, or liquidey (I know that’s not a word) like a glaze… It needs work. Other than that I really like these cupcakes. The flavors aren’t overwhelming and the cake is fluffy. What more could a girl ask for?

 

One last thing before I go. A few weeks ago, my precious hand mixer, finally decided to go to Small Kitchen Appliance Heaven. Or at least she made her wishes known. Sadly, I’m cheap, and I continued to use and abuse her until last weekend. We had gone up to my mom’s house in MA to pick up a few things (namely a Valet Chair that used to belong to my grandfather), and she surprised me with an early Christmas present! Guess what it was… GUESS!! It was a super duper awesome fantastic KitchenAid stand mixer! WOOT! It’s going to take some getting used to, the speeds and such… but I’m very excited to continue using Paula (yes, I named my stand mixer) as much as possible!

 

Now, I’m going to eat another cupcake, or find something to blend/ mix/ stir!

 

Happy Sunday Cupcakery!

-Hey Waitress!!

 

CUPCAKE recipe here! Bourbon Ball recipe here!!