being the fan i am of eggnog, i thought i’d try something new for santa beyond the typical cookie and glass of milk ( not that there’s anything wrong with that ). last year i ran across this recipe for eggnog cupcakes that looked mighty tasty but didn’t get around to making it before i ran out of eggnog. i picked up an extra quart of the good stuff this year to ensure i didn’t suffer the same fate!

the recipe is fairly straightforward. since i wanted odin to enjoy the cupcakes i didn’t add any of the rum in the original reciple and simply added a smidge of extra eggnog, vegetable oil and apple cider to adjust for the loss of an 1/8th of a cup of liquid.

it should go without saying that if you’re going to make eggnog cupcakes you should use the very best organic eggnog 🙂

eggnog cupcake ingredients:

* 1 1/8 cup organic valley eggnog ( plus a smidge )
* 1/4 cup vegetable oil ( plus a smidge )
* 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar ( plus a smidge )
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 1/4 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
* 1/4 tsp baking soda
* 1/2 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp salt

directions

preheat oven to 350F. optionally, fill a 12-cup muffin tin with liners.

in a small bowl, mix together the liquids: eggnog, vegetable oil, vinegar and vanilla.

in a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients: nutmeg, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

pour the contents of the wet mixture into the dry and gently stir until just combined. divide into muffin tins and bake for 18-20 minutes, until a tester comes out clean and the cakes spring back when lightly pressed.

cool in the pan for 3-5 minutes, before putting on a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

frosting

i made a simple whipped topping with organic valley heavy whipping cream, a teaspoon of sugar and a big of vanilla extract. combine all ingredients and whip until stiff peaks form. i always tend to overwhip the topping because i habitually leave the standing mixer during the whipping process. don’t do that if you’re picky about your whipped topping.

sprinkle with freshly ground nutmeg.

the result is a wonderful eggnoggy cupcakey bit of goodness that’s really quite tasty that’s just little bit crumbly so it might be a good idea to use muffin liners if you storing or transporting them.

and yes, it appears that santa enjoyed his cupcake 🙂

i had the intention of making a gluten free version of the recipe using pamela’s gluten freen baking mix which is usually headache-free flour replacement that typically requires few additional recipe adjustments.

apparently that’s not the case with cupcakes because my attempt with a simple substitution was a disaster, yielding the dreaded collapsing cupcake phenomenon presumably because cupcakes didn’t have enough enough of the structural support provided by gluten. i know there are muffin and cupcake recipes out there that use pamela’s mix but i guess i need to do some more tinkering to make it work with this recipe.

so, for this year at least, santa had to suck it and love the gluten.