‘Eggnog hang-over’, part II

I promised to return with a photo of the lovely little miss that made my Christmas extra bright.

This eggnog cupcake has the most amazing flavor.  It is the hallmark by which other seasonal bakes will be measured.  I really am so amazed with the blending of flavors. There’s the obvious rum and eggnog hints, but the flavor of the yogurt strikes too!

Here’s the recipe.  (Remember, this was my initial bake from the earlier post, but not the one that successfully departed it’s baking pan.  These particular Texas-sized muffins have been waiting impatiently in my freezer.  Today, I set them free.)

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.

…..

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.

The original post can be seen here: https://coffeegrounded.wordpress.com/2011/01/08/eggnog-hang-over/

~ by coffeegrounded on January 14, 2011.