International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Ya-hoy! Buttered Rum Cupcakes on rough seas

 

Things have been a tad rough lately, right?  Nothing like a little pandemic to make life more difficult.  Fun cupcakes to the rescue!  

I've been wanting to make these for Speak Like a Pirate Day for years.  I guess I thought they'd be complicated and time consuming, but they really weren't. In fact, since the recipe uses a packaged biscuit, they're easier than most baked items.  The only tricky part was making sure you didn't over cook the syrup.

The original recipe said it made 18; I cut the original down to one third.  Here's what I used:

Butter-Rum Sauce
1 tablespoon butter
5⅓ teaspoons heavy cream
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons Lyle's golden corn syrup
1 tablespoon spiced rum
1/6 teaspoon vanilla extract

Rum Ball Cupcakes
1 16.3-ounce can ready-made buttermilk biscuits (non-flaky)
1/6 cup butter-rum sauce
1/3 teaspoon cinnamon
1/6 teaspoon nutmeg
1/6 cup spiced rum

Butter-Rum Ocean Frosting
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon butter-rum sauce
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2/3 drops black food coloring
5 drops blue food coloring plus 1⅔ more drops

For the butter-rum sauce, heat the butter, cream, brown sugar, and golden syrup in a saucepan over medium high heat, stirring frequently, until the butter is melted and the ingredients are combined. Bring the sauce to a boil, then lower the heat so that the mixture retains a slow but constant boil. Allow the mixture to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring every minute. The mixture should be thicker at the end. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the rum and the vanilla extract until completely blended, but be careful as the mixture will likely spatter a bit. Set the sauce aside to cool to room temperature.

For the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a medium-sized bowl, mix 1/6 cup of the butter-rum sauce with the cinnamon, nutmeg, and rum in a large bowl until well blended.  Cut the biscuits into eighths and place them in the rum marinade, gently tossing them in the mixture with your hands to ensure that they are evenly coated.  Allow them to soak in the mixture for 5 minutes, tossing with your hands every minute or so to prevent them from getting too stuck to one another.  Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners. Fill each of the cupcake liners about 3/4 full with the rum balls.  Spoon any sauce left at the bottom of the bowl over each of the cupcakes before placing the pan in the oven to bake for 30 minutes, or until the cupcakes are golden brown.

For the frosting, mix together the butter, butter-rum sauce, and powdered sugar with an electric mixer until a smooth frosting forms.  Remove 1/3 of the frosting and set it aside.  Add the black food coloring, and the 5 drops of blue food coloring to the larger amount of frosting and mix until combined.  Add the remaining 1/3 frosting back in and stir until partially blended, so that there are still a few lighter streaks in the frosting. Add the remaining blue food coloring, placing each drop over a different area of the frosting, and stir with a large spoon or spatula a few times until there are bright blue streaks throughout.

Remove the cupcakes from the pan and allow to cool to room temperature before frosting.  Drizzle a little of the remaining butter-rum sauce over each one.  Then, using a spatula, smear the frosting on top of the cupcake to create an ocean wave.  For decoration, cut out sail and boat shapes from brown and white paper and attach them to the cupcakes using a toothpick.

 

I used Pillsbury Grands Southern Homestyle Buttermilk biscuits, "fluffy".  Cutting into them was a sensual joy, all soft and springy.  It was a 16.3-ounce package, and I thought I was making 6 cupcakes (one-third of 18 for the original recipe) but ended up with 10.  I probably could have done 9, but that would have been it.  They were a little browner than I would have liked at 30 minutes; I wish I'd checked a few minutes sooner.

The biscuit part was rather tough.  That might have been from being overbaked, or it might be the constraint of the muffin cup, or it might just be the product.  The butter-rum sauce is delicious-- that could be used in soooo many ways. (Some more adult than others.  Hint hint nudge nudge.)

Conclusion:  These were tasty, but they tasted pretty much like Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, which are so much easier!  (But not as cute.)  The prepared biscuits have such a distinctive taste that I couldn't get past it.  I ate them for breakfast with coffee.  I found dribbling them with the syrup before frosting made them too sweet, so I left that off.  Otherwise, the quantities were just about perfect.

Recipe:  Buttered Rum Cupcakes via Adventures in Cooking