Snow Cowboys

I am hard-wired to bake when it snows. Last weekend, during our record-breaking storm, I wanted to do something new and fun. One flavor combination kept popping into my head: butterscotch and Bailey's. When I lived in Scotland we used to do shots called "cowboys," which were butterscotch liquor with Bailey's floated on top. They were delicious, and somehow in my head that turned into cupcakes.

cake batter, yum!

So off I went! By the end of the day I had also baked Texas Sheet Cake cupcakes by request, so it was overall a day full of very cold cowboys.

Left: Texas cupcakes, Right: cowboys

Finding a good butterscotch recipe was actually harder than I expected, so I ended up adapting several recipes to get what I wanted.  The result: Butterscotch cupcakes with Bailey's buttercream frosting and butterscotch sauce drizzle. My drizzling technique needs work, but even so--these little guys were delicious. Everyone in my family liked them, and they had a sweet nostalgia of Edinburgh in winter that was an extra treat.

Here are the recipes as I used them--follow the links for the originals. As I noted, none of these were purely created by me!

Butterscotch Cupcakes, from Martha Stewart's Butterscotch-Pecan Cake

(preheat oven to 325 degrees)

• 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt

• 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter

• 2 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar

• 4 eggs

• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1 1/4 teaspoons rum (preferably dark)

• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, and rum. Alternate dry ingredients with buttermilk. Batter should be a fairly dense consistency (don't over-mix!). I like to scoop mine into cups with an ice cream scoop. Bake at 325 for about 20 minutes.

Bailey's Frosting, adapted from this fabulous frosting recipe from Cooking Classy

3 sticks butter
4 (with more if needed) cups powdered sugar
3 Tbs Bailey's Irish Cream
a splash of light cream

Butter until light and fluffy before adding other ingredients. Beat until preferred consistency--I go about 8 minutes.

Drizzle cupcakes with butterscotch sauce--I used this one from Smitten Kitchen

Yum!