Chocolate (Canadian) Whisky Cupcakes, Eh!

Which type of whisky would be the best to use in chocolate cupcakes?

Foodies,

Going to Niagara Wine Country tomorrow for a summer day trip with the iYellow Wine Club and there’s a special secret stop at the Forty Creek Canadian Whisky distillery. In honor of our visit, I decided to make some Chocolate Canadian Whisky Cupcakes.

Until the recent resurgence of American bourbon whisky, Canadian Whisky was actually the biggest selling spirit down in the US which I consider very ironic because despite being made with the same ingredients, they couldn’t be further apart in taste, profile or style.

American bourbon whisky is made from a single combined mash of corn, barley and rye and derives a lot of its flavors from the charred oak barrels and is super rich and flavorful to me. Canadian whisky, on the other hand, is made by fermenting each grain separately and then combining them after. It’s not that different from winemaking actually and results in a very subtle and mellow flavor. Comparing Canadian Whisky to Bourbon Whisky is a lot like comparing AFWE to IPOB/WWF wines to me, actually.

Both make excellent cooking ingredients – try using some of either in your next batch of baked beans or BBQ sauce – and complement chocolate quite well. So I decided these cupcakes would be the perfect treat for the trip tomorrow:

• 1 1/2 cups cake/pastry flour

• 1/2 cup cocoa powder

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 cup butter

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1/2 cup buttermilk

• 1/2 cup Forty Creek Confederation Oak Canadian Whisky

• 1 tsp artisanal homemade vanilla extract

I mixed the flour, cocoa, soda and powder together. Yes, I hate white flour but pastry flour is a necessary evil for a proper texture to the cupcake and I needed the flavor of the chocolate and whisky to shine through.

I then creamed the butter and sugar, added in the eggs one at a time, and then added in the vanilla. While that mixed in the Kitchen Aid mixer, I mixed the whisky and buttermilk together.

I then added in alternating steps one third of the flour mix followed by one third of the liquid and proceed until all were mixed in. Then off into muffin tin pans lined with parchment paper cupcake liners (God bless the day I found these in my local supermarket) and into a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

While they cooled, I put together a Grand Marnier Cream Cheese Buttercream to ice them with:

• 1 pkg cream cheese
• 1 cup butter
• 1/4 cup Grand Marnier
• 2 kg icing sugar (2 individual bags worth)
• 2 TBSP cornstarch (for added body)

This was easy enough, I just blended together at slow speed in the Kitchen Aid and then increased the speed until the frosting was light and fluffy.

I filled a decorator’s tube with the icing and used a large star tip and pumped out a large star to frost each cupcake with. The cupcakes came out great and the flavors of chocolate and Canadian whisky are very complementary but the whisky flavor is not too surprisingly very subtle. You can only tell that whisky has been added on the finish of a bite. I’m actually interested in doing this recipe again with some of my Eagle Rare 17 or George T. Stagg just to see what kind of kick American Bourbon Whisky would give this recipe.

In the meantime, enjoy the cupcake and frosting porn:

Feel free to vote in the poll for which whisky is best used in a chocolate cupcake recipe. In the meantime, here are some non-naked frosted finished cupcakes:

Tran,
Thanks for posting this. Made a batch tonight for a party using some Buffalo Trace and they were awesome. Everyone loved them!

@Chuck: You’re welcome. Another satisfied customer! Regarding your choice of bourbon whisky… I have some Eagle Rare 17 and rocket fuel George T. Stagg. I wonder how these babies would turn out with the latter in it!