Root Beer Float Cupcakes

"Life is short. Take the trip. Buy the shoes. Eat the cake."
- Unknown
​
​Today is mamala's birthday, and as with my BF-mom's birthday, we gather here today to celebrate their collective sweet tooth.

Mamala passionately loved root beer floats and "black cows" (made with Coke instead of root beer), quintessential summer treats. Are they as nostalgic for you as they are for me? If so, what was your first memory of them? (Feel free to comment below!)

​Even though I was lucky enough to grow up with an A&W in my hometown (it's still there), growing up we didn't frequent it too often. Mamala made her own floats at home, and oh how I loved watching her make them. One scoop of vanilla ice cream in a frosted glass. Root beer poured just so. The carbonation would foam up instantly, but never overflowed. She had the touch. I also remember she used a long, slender soda spoon to give it a slight stir.

I made it home for almost all of her birthdays, but one year it wasn't possible and the BF and I Fed Exed these root beer float cupcakes (frosting in a separate container, ice cream not included) to my sister and mom. They were delighted, and a little surprised, to discover what was in the box.

My first attempt at this was as a full-sized bundt cake, as was originally written in one of my favorite cookbooks, Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, by Matt Lewis and Renato Polafito. When I spied the cupcake version on the Smitten Kitchen blog, knew I had to make it for mamala. I added the root beer fudge frosting.

If you don't have time to make individual cupcakes, make it into a bundt, frost it and serve ice cream on the side. Either way, you won't be sorry.

Adapted from: Matt Lewis and Renato Polafito, Baked: New Frontiers in Baking and Smitten Kitchen (cupcakes)
Number of servings: 22 cupcakes or one (10-inch) bundt cake

Ingredients
Cupcakes

• 2 cups root beer (do NOT use diet root beer). Or, as suggested in Baked, if you can find root beer schnapps, replace ½ cup of that instead of root beer for more pronounced flavor.
• 1 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
• ½ cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
• ½ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs

Root Beer Fudge Frosting

• 2 ounces dark chocolate (60% cacao), melted and cooled slightly
•  ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼  cup root beer
• ⅔ cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 ½ cups powdered sugar

Toppings

• 1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream (Or canned real whipped cream like Reddi-wip to save time. Gasp! I know.)
• 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pint of vanilla ice cream (you’ll have some leftover, you’re welcome)
• Maraschino cherries (optional)

Directions
Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 350 °F.
2. Line 22 cupcake cups with paper liners.
3. In a small saucepan, heat root beer, cocoa powder and butter over medium heat until butter is melted. Add the sugars and whisk until dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool.
4. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs until just beaten, then whisk them into the cooled cocoa mixture until combined. Fold the liquid and flour mixtures together in the large bowl. The batter will be slightly lumpy, this is okay. If you overbeat it, it will get tough.
5. Fill cupcake liners about ⅔ to ¾ full (a ¼ cup scoop or measuring cup filled mine perfectly) and bake cupcakes, rotating trays back-to-front and top-to-bottom halfway through, until a tester inserted into the center of each comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Transfer from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

Root Beer Fudge Frosting

1. Put ingredients into a food processor. Pulse in short bursts until frosting is shiny and smooth.
2. Place frosting in a piping bag.

Assemble Cupcakes

1. Whip heavy whipping cream with powdered sugar and vanilla until it holds soft peaks. You can do this with an electric mixer. Place whipped cream in a piping bag, if desired.
2. Use knife tip to cut a small cone out of the top-center of each cupcake; feel free to snack on these, I won’t tell. [Ed. note: I'm considering it.]
3. With the frosting piping bag, swirl a small amount around rim of each cupcake (don't cover the small hole you carved out).
4. Using a spoon or a small cookie scoop, nest a scoop of ice cream in each indent. Surround ice cream with dollops of whipped cream. Top with a cherry, if using.
5. To keep cupcakes in a holding pattern while you assemble remaining ones, you can put them in the freezer, but try to do so for no more than 5 minutes or the whipped cream will harden.
6. Eat immediately. [Ed. note: This is not a drill.]

NOTES:

• You can make this easy on yourself and bake in a 10-inch Bundt pan. Butter and dust pan with flour, knock out excess flour. Pour batter into bundt and bake for 35-40 minutes at 325 °F. Transfer from pan to wire rack to cool completely. Gently loosen sides of cake from pan and turn it out onto rack. Use a spatula to spread fudge frosting over the crown of the bundt in a thick layer. Let frosting set before serving, with ice cream on the side.
• Tastes best to let the cupcakes/bundt sit overnight to let the root beer flavor intensify.​
• If 22 cupcakes are too much, you can easily halve the recipe down to 11 cupcakes. Don't halve the frosting though.

PS: One year ago...
www.moveablefeast.me/blog/lush-chocolate-cake-with-chocolate-malt-frosting