Dr. Pepper Cupcakes

 

Well, Christmas has come and gone.  I love Christmas but I hate the feeling after it's over.  All of the buildup and excitement -- shopping, wrapping, baking, making plans, driving, etc. -- all for a few hours or a day, and then it's all done.  Kris and I drove back home last night, unloaded the car and then just sat on the couch and looked at each other - "now what?".   

Thinking about the new year is daunting to me.  It's a clean slate - but you have to live up to it.  It's the time to make resolutions - lose weight, save money, clean more, be a better person.  It's nice to imagine those things; but does anyone actually keep them up for the entire year?  Maybe a few, but not the majority.  So what's the point?  Anyway.  I don't know why I feel so cynical right now, or why I felt the need to go off on that tangent.  Back to the yummy stuff.

One of the items Santa brought me this year was a stand mixer (thanks Tay!) so of course I had to break it in.  I also got several boxes of cake mix (thanks Grandma!) so between having that and feeling lazy, I wanted to find a doctored cake mix recipe instead of making something from scratch.  I was excited when I found this one - I've never baked with soda before and I actually had all the ingredients on hand.

I used the cupcake recipe from one site and a glaze recipe from another and they worked perfectly together.  I got 22 cupcakes from the recipe but as you'll see below, I could have gotten several more out if I hadn't filled them as much.

Dr. Pepper Cupcakes

Source: BS in the Kitchen

• 1 box of chocolate cake mix (I used Betty Crocker Milk Chocolate)
• 1/2 cup of melted butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup of Dr. Pepper (just drink the remainder of the can!) 

I was a little confused at first - the butter and Dr. Pepper are in place of the vegetable oil and water that the box calls for.  Don't use the oil and water!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Combine the cake mix, butter, eggs, and Dr. Pepper until the batter is smooth.  Pour into cupcake liners - fill about 1/3rds of the way full (you could do this as a cake as well).  This is where I messed up.  Most of the cupcakes I've ever made say to fill the liners about 2/3rd full - so I did.  Well, don't do that.  The carbonation in the Dr. Pepper caused the batter to rise a lot more than I expected so I ended up with cupcakes that have huge muffin tops.  (New Year's diet anyone??  Haha.)  They tasted great - more room for glaze!  But weren't very pretty.  Bake for 15-18 minutes.  I did mine for 18 and they were perfectly spongy. 

 
As they are cooling, start making the glaze.

Dr. Pepper Glaze
Source: Adapted from The Recipe Link

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 6 tablespoons Dr. Pepper
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 (1-pound) box confectioners’ sugat, sifted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
  
  In a saucepan, combine the butter, Dr. Pepper, and cocoa powder. Bring the mixture to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove the pan from the heat. Gradually stir in the confectioners’ sugar until the mixture is smooth, then fold in the vanilla extract.  Dip the cupcakes in the glaze being sure to let the excess run off.
  
  
  
   It's ok if you get some on your fingers.  You can lick it off. 
  
  
  The glaze will be very wet and runny to begin with, but it will begin to dry after just a few minutes.
  
  
  You can't really taste the Dr. Pepper in the cupcakes but the effect it had on them was amazing.  They were so light and airy.  The glaze is delicious.  The Dr. Pepper flavor is subtle but you'll pick it up in the tangy-ness.