Root Beer Float Cupcakes/Peeps birthday

2 posts in a matter of mere days?

To celebrate my dear friend Kathleen's 24th birthday, we decided to hold a potluck! I was very impressed with everyone; finally, a potluck without bruschetta.


Peeps made a variety of things herself, which does go against the whole potluck idea, but she is always the hostess. She did up a tomato-bocconcini-basil salad, chili, her classic chocolate chips cookies and a few Indian dips. I made some Jello shots (that went over very well, but I didn't manage to snap any photos) and we tag teamed and made Root Beer Float Cupcakes, c/o Smitten Kitchen.

Cupcakes
2 cups root beer (We used good ol' A&W)
1 cup cocoa
1/2 cup salted butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs

Toppings
1 1/2 cups heavy or whipping cream
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Maraschino cherries (optional)

Make the root beer cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 28 cupcake cups with paper liners. In a small saucepan, heat the root beer, cocoa powder and butter over medium heat until the butter is melted. Add the sugars and whisk until dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool.

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.

Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 to 3/4 full (a 1/4 cup scoop or measuring cup will 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 14 minutes. Remove cupcakes and cool on wire rack.

Whip whipping cream with powdered sugar and vanilla until it holds soft peaks. Once cupcakes are cool, add whipped cream as icing. Top with a cherry, if using.

Eat immediately!

If you take a look at the Smitten Kitchen link, you'll see that she used come ice cream as decoration, but in the best interest of keeping our cupcakes looking snazzy while sitting out, we opted out.

The root beer flavor wasn't super strong but you could taste it a little bit. Graham was quoted as saying 'I want a conveyor belt to put these into my mouth'. I guess that means it went over well.