kentucky is known for its booze

As the days of May creep by, I have needed to come up with ways to promote batter.  There are scarcely any people in town, and I have had to get creative.  With the upcoming celebratory weekend, I am scouting out the people that like to pair their cocktails with cupcakes.  Not for Mother's Day, but for the 137th Kentucky Derby!  It is sure to be as grand and opulent as ever with silver julep cups & big feathery hats.  To pair worthy cupcakes with the Derby, I needed to find flavors as delicious as the seersucker suits.  The perfect pairing to go along with tonight's baking is gruyere on rosemary crackers with a glass of Layer Cake Malbec.  Of course I love the wine named after a cake....

I have bought the bourbon, the creme de menthe and fresh pecans by the bagful.

 

 

It seems that a leprechaun has added a little of his own special touch...(it's just creme de menthe)

every baker makes mistakes!  too much time in the oven!  once I removed the crisped top, a light & fluffy minty shamrock cupcake emerged.  ooh goody.  I'm getting there...

the mint julep inspired cake has a touch of mint, bourbon & alotta love

The next experiment didn't go as well in our clean and crisp 8,150 feet up.  The ultimate goal is to make a Kentucky Bourbon Pie inspired cupcake.  The combination of chocolate cake batter and a variation of pecan pie filling turned out too sugary & flat-lined 6 minutes into oven time.

wah waaaaaaah

but it does taste delicious!  moist, chocolatey and rich with sweet pecans. 

I have kinda deduced what went wrong so I've altered the base of the recipe from chocolate to vanilla - it is butter-based instead of oil-based so I think the consistency is going to hold up much better....

this version turned out WAY lighter in color, and you can see more of the pie filling, but it did all sink to the bottom...

Since it's not quite perfect, we're not quite there yet.  If I don't want to eat it, neither will my customers so I will keep experimenting until I find the perfect balance of texture, flavor & look!