Back in February after a month I started dating Joaquin, he had asked me if for his friends birthday we could give them the birthday cake as a present. How could I say no? And so, we embarked in the journey of prepping birthday cakes at least 2 or 3 times a month. 

I started with the classic ones: key lime pie, brownies, chocolate, but needed to get a bit more creative. The birthday parties were coming more often than I could repeat the same cake. 

For Fran’s birthday, I needed a day cake that it was both fresh, tasteful and grownup. Fran enjoys a good drink, paella was on the menu.  I don’t like whiskey but I do not dislike Bourbon. I took the bourbon path: and Bourbon Butterscotch Buttercream came up. It works awesome with chocolate or vainilla. You can always add a hint of bourbon to the cake batter for extra flavor. 

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Recipe

Makes: 8 mini cupcakes, 6 regular cupcakes
Prep Time: 30 Minutes
Cook Time: 10 Minutes

Ingredients

• Bourbon Butterscotch:
  • 40 gr Butter
  • 83 gr Light brown sugar
  • ½ tsp Light corn syrup
  • ¼ tsp Salt
  • 30 gr Heavy cream
  • 3 tbsp Bourbon
• Bourbon Butterscotch Buttercream:
  • 160 gr Confectioners sugar, sifted
  • 75 gr Butter, softened
  • 2 tbsp
  • ¾ tsp Bourbon Butterscotch

Instructions:

1. Bourbon Butterscotch: In a small saucepan melt the butter over medium heat. . Stir in the sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Mixing continously with a plastic or wooden spoon until the sugar is completely melted. Remove the pan from the heat and while whisking pour the cream. Return the pan to the fire and stirring with the spoon for 5 minutes. Remove from the fire, stir the vanilla and bourbon. Pour into a heat safe container and let cool down, as it cool down it will thicken.
2. Buttercream: Sift the powdered sugar on top of a piece of parchment paper. In the bowl of a stand mixer set with the paddle attachment place the butter. Cream the butter for a good 5- 7 minutes. The butter should be pale yellow, almost white. Stop the mixer, 2-3 times in between and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Scrape the bowl one more time, and add half of the confectioners sugar to the butter. Start the mixer on slow. As you see small/ medium size crumbs start to form increase mixer speed. Stop the mixer at two different times, scrape the bowl and continue mixing and medium/ high speed.
3. Before adding the powdered sugar scrape the bowl, and pour the sugar. Let it cream at medium/high speed for 4 minutes. Stop the mixer, scrape the bowl and add the Bourbon Butterscotch. Continue mixing until you reach a creamy and shiny buttercream.
4. To decorate de cupcakes I drizzle the bourbon butterscotch on top of the buttercream.

** TIP: You can add as much Bourbon Butterscotch as you may like. Just be carefull not to make buttercream runny. You can scale the recipe up or down as you might like. To fill and decorate an 8-inch cake you will need to multiply the recipe by 8.