Eggnog hang-over

Okay, I confess.  I’m not inebriated or suffering from a liquor-infused altered state.  It’s just that after hanging the new wall calendar, and with the onset of a spring cleaning frenzy that’s about to set foot, I felt it was about time I tossed the remnants of all things, Christmas, from the inside of Miss G.E.  The list of items, tossed, is much too embarrassing for me to publicly admit, so I’m only going to admit to eggnog, as that last cowboy standing.

While some may not care for this item as a beverage, it does have its advantages in baking.  Namely, you can toss it into just about anything from a bread pudding/custard to a baked bread.  I opted for a cupcake.  Actually, I opted for a bundt cake and a fist full of cupcakes.  Two different recipes, both enticing and inviting in their own rite.  I failed to take pics of my first round of baking, but just as well.  That cake-wreck was nothing short of a heartbreaker, and especially since the baked item it yielded was by far the most spectacular item that I baked this season.  The cherry-centered, rum-drunken cake refused to jump freely from its baking space inside the bundt pan, never-the-less, I forgave the item its waywardness as I hid myself in the corner of my kitchen, spooning the broken mass into an over-sized custard cup.  I had every intention of serving it as a ‘pudding-cup’ for our family dessert.  That was until I told myself:

“Self, taste a bit of this and see if it is even worth saving.”

I thought I was awaiting a reply, when suddenly I awoke from a drunken stupor, realizing all too soon that the contents of the custard cup had been stolen!

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Oh well.  Enough said.  Surely bake number two would yield something as exquisite, but that would have to wait for another day.  I must allow the fog to clear and the vapors to recede.

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Trial Number Two….fret not, I’ll post the cake-wreck before I close the post.  If you have eggnog in the fridge, and rum in the cupboard, go with that version rather than this one…but then bake these too.  You are deserving of both, especially after careening past St. Nick and headlong into the excitement of this Happy New Year!

Eggnog Cupcakes

original recipe can be viewed at: http://bakeanddestroy.net/2010/12/eggnog-cupcakes/

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

• 1 3/4 cups cake flour
• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup eggnog
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

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Line two cupcake pans with liners, or spray with cooking spray.  Set aside.  Cream room-temp butter, and sugar, for five minutes or until batter is fluffy and light.  Gradually add in eggs, one at a time, blend, but do not overly mix.  Stir in vanilla.  Add sifted dry ingredients in increments of three, alternating with the cup of eggnog.  Fill baking cups 2/3 full and bake for approximately 17 to 22 minutes, or until golden brown.  Test cupcake tops for spring-back, careful not to overbake.  Cool cupcake for five minutes before removing them to a wire rack for additional cooling.

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Bakeanddestroy offers an eggnog frosting for her cupcake, but I opted for a rum-infused, cream cheese frosting.  I made this lovely up as I stood swirling golden rum from a decanter.  (Okay, I’m taking liberties here.  I wasn’t really drinking from a decanter.  I was just playing with you.  ;)

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Rum-infused Cream Cheese Icing

• 8 ounces Neufchatel Cheese ( a block of cream cheese or some mascarpone would do nicely, too)
• 1 stick of unsalted butter, room-temp
• 1 teaspoon Madagascar Bourbon vanilla
• 2 to 3 Tablespoon golden rum  (I used Bacardi)
• 4 1/2 to 5 cups of sifted confectioners sugar

Beat cream and butter in mixer on high-speed until fully blended.   Slowly add the vanilla and Bacardi rum, along with one half of the confectioners sugar.  Stir together until mixture is combined. Stop mixer and add the remaining confectioners sugar. Resume on low speed and work to the highest mixer setting to fully incorporate and blend.  Whip until light and fluffy.  Add additional confectioners sugar to stiffen, if necessary, for your personal decorating needs.

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Cherry eggnog bundt cake

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Inspired by the lovely gem by the same name:  Cherry Eggnog Bundt Cake, http://www.epicurious.com , this recipe veers a bit with the use of low-fat yogurt sans sour cream and a can of Lucky Leaf premium cherry pie filling rather than the dark canned cherries requested in the original version.  Also, I used a dark rum, Bacardi, but the original recipe notes offer the use or kirsch or another favored brandy.  Either way you do this, do it right.  Use liquor.  I highly recommend it. The dark rum added a nuance that could not have been rendered by the addition of a rum flavoring.

• 1 cup softened butter, unsalted
• 1 cup non-fat yogurt, room-temp
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, room-temp
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 cups good quality eggnog
• 1/4 cup dark rum (Bacardi was my offering)
• 1 cup Lucky Leaf premium cherry pie filling

Whip butter and sugar together for two to three minutes, add yogurt and continue beating until light and fluffy.  About two additional minutes, give or take.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating only until combined.  Sift together all dry ingredients.  Set aside.   Mix rum and eggnog together.  Add sifted dry ingredients, and eggnog, in increments of three, to the blended sugar/butter/yogurt batter.  Do not overbeat, but to take care to fully incorporate batter, checking to ensure that no ingredients are left at the base of the mixing bowl.

Grease and flour a large bundt pan, or one small bundt pan and six cowboy-sized muffin cups (a regular sized muffin tin, yielding 12 muffins, can be substituted for the cowboy size).

Fill baking pans 1/2 full of batter.  Spoon cherry filling into the center of the pan(s), avoiding any contact with the center or edges of the baking receptacle.  (I opted to use the full can of cherry pie filling for the batter contents of this recipe.  I regret this move, it is the reason my item would not evacuate the bundt pan.  A large bit of the baking center settled toward the bottom of my pan, when I flipped it to center the cake on the plate, the top stayed glued to the interior of the pan.)

Bake regular size bundt pan for 90 minutes at 325 degrees.  My smaller bundt pan was ready at 55 minutes, and my cowboy-sized muffins were ready at 27 minutes.  Bake according to pan size and check to insure even baking.

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(If I think to do it, I will remove a cowboy-sized cupcake from the freezer, cut it in half, and come back to this with another photo op.  If I forget, or rather, if the fumes and the flavor send me into another stupor, forgive me.  I know not what I do…..hiccup!)

;)

~ by coffeegrounded on January 8, 2011.