Holiday Battle Royale - Fight 1: Spiked EggNog Cupcakes

Yeah, it's been awhile since I've made a post... been busy with learning how to draw and archery!  Yesterday, I (hey, the QuinJa needs to reload his ammo!) bought 11lbs of 65% Chocolate Couverture Coins, Sugar, Molasses, Honey, Egg, etc... ready to try to impress at all the Holiday Gathering arenas! 

Some people post pictures of their animals, but how about my Pam Poovey inspired Sharkey!

So, my trivia team "That's Using Your Egg-Noggin" has been doing well so they inspired me to make alcoholic eggnog cupcakes.  Bold are my initial changes to the recipe I found.  Makes 24 cupcakes.

Cake:

• 3 cups of cake flour (it's lighter than normal AP flour... if you can't find it, this is how you make it with corn starch - CLICK).
• 2.5 teaspoons baking powder
• 0.5 teaspoons of salt
• 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter (that's one half stick)
• 1.5 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 4 tablespoons dark rum (the QuinJa uses Meyers)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1.5 cup of eggnog (half a quart)

Glaze:

• 2 teaspoons of maple syrup (the recipe that I found said light corn syrup - but I like Canada... they protect The Wall so the wildlings of the North Pole don't invade the US!)
• 1.5 cup of 10x sugar
• 4 tablespoons of eggnog
• Nutmeg...just to dust on top
• Rum - to taste (or drinking while baking) (for those that I want a number - 1 teaspoon)

1. Cream the butter + sugar.
2. Add the wet ingredients (eggs, vanilla, rum, eggnog).
3. Add the dry ingredients (powder, salt, flour) in portions to ensure good mixing.
4. Bake at 350F (apparently, my baking thermometer read 350F when I set my oven at 400F!) for about 20 minutes.  Use a toothpick to see if it comes out clean!

"Spiked EggNog with EggNog Glaze Dusted with Nutmeg"

Battle Report:

• As the QuinJa, I probably do too much "overkill" (get it?) with the rum, as I've noticed that my alcoholic cupcakes always seem to droop in the center... in this case, it's OK because it gives me a pool for the glaze to collect in.
• For peeps that don't like this look, just mix the Glaze concoction with enough butter or marscapone to give it more volume... yes, you've just made a more traditional buttercream icing.
• I really liked the moisture/texture of the final product but I felt like it was missing a "kick" (or roundhouse)... I tend to like a mixture of sweet and savory in my desserts.  Below is my modification for Version 2.0.

Cake:

• 3 cups of cake flour (it's lighter than normal AP flour... if you can't find it, this is how you make it with corn starch - CLICK).
• 2.5 teaspoons baking powder  (I'm thinking 3-4 teaspoons of baking powder for more rise like a Dragon Punch - Shu-ryu-ken!)  UPDATE - 3 teaspoons did the job!
• 0.5 teaspoons of salt
• 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter (that's one half stick)
• 1.5 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 4 tablespoons dark rum (the QuinJa uses Meyers)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1.5 cup of eggnog (half a quart)
• Nutmeg or other spices... I feel that having it in the cake will make it taste better.

Glaze:

• 2 teaspoons of maple syrup (the recipe that I found said light corn syrup - but I like Canada... they protect The Wall so the wildlings of the North Pole don't invade the US!)
• 1.5 cup of 10x sugar
• 4 tablespoons of eggnog
• Nutmeg...just to dust on top
• Rum - to taste (or drinking while baking) 
• 1/4 teaspoon - yeah, going for that Salted Eggnog taste!