I never gave my father-in-law a chance to choose his birthday cupcake flavour – it was always going to be Crown Royal cupcakes.
You see, many years ago, when Paul and I were still dating, I gave a bottle of Crown Royal Canadian whisky to his dad for Christmas after Paul told me it was his favourite. The tradition was born. Ever since, I have gifted Paul’s dad with a bottle of Crown Royal every Christmas.
Many bottles of Crown Royal later, I didn’t hesitate that this would be the flavour to kick off my birthday cupcake series.
The cupcakes were a little on the denser-side, so I took it light with the frosting. The idea of Crown Royal cupcakes was met with a lot of popularity, although I have a sneaky feeling that anytime I say “cupcakes with booze” people will start cheering. The resulting cupcakes weren’t heavily whisky-flavoured, even though I had put whisky in both the cupcake and the frosting. You just get hints of the whisky every so often.
Overall, it was a fairly successful first attempt at birthday cupcakes. In fact, they’ve already been given the nickname “Boozy Cupcakes”…so I’ll probably be whipping these up again soon.
ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons Crown Royal Canadian whisky
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 2 ounces cream cheese
- 1 pound powdered sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/2 tablespoons Crown Royal Canadian whisky
directions
- Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Line standard-sized cupcake pans with paper liners.
- In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Once the butter has melted, add the Crown Royal and cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Bring the mixture just to a boil and then remove from heat. Set aside to cool
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, sour cream and milk in a medium bowl.
- Slowly pour 2-3 tablespoons of the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and whisk until smooth. Pour the rest of the chocolate mixture in and whisk until combined.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
- Make a well in the flour and pour in the wet mixture. Whisk until smooth.
- Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 full.
- Bake for about 18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from the oven and place the pan on a wire rack.
- Allow cupcakes to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing the cupcakes from the pan and placing them onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Cool completely before frosting.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream together the butter and cream cheese.
- Slowly add the powdered sugar and beat on high until smooth.
- Add the salt and beat on high for 3-4 minutes.
- Add the Crown Royal and mix on medium high speed until well integrated.
- Pipe (or slather) frosting onto cooled cupcakes.
- Cupcakes taste best the day of or one day after they're made. Store covered in the refrigerator for up to five days.
source: adapted from Java Cupcake’s Crown Royal Reserve Cupcakes
Errr you know how i love boozy stuffs, and yes! That means this is a must-try recipe. Yum!
Made these last year for a Christmas gift to my boyfriend’s father and they were AMAZING. They were raved about for the longest time. I knew I’d be making it a tradition and realized I lost this recipe and have been searching high and low to find it since… Well tonight I FINALLY came across it and I am so happy!!! This recipe will be a tradition for me, just the same as for your father in law, from now on. My favorite thing about this is that most cupcake recipes just mix the wet ingredients and then incorporate the dry. The cooking on the stovetop allows the whiskey to really flavor the chocolate on an different level and gives them the extra oomph that makes this recipe unforgettable. Thanks again! So happy I found this just in time for Christmas!!
Wow, Kayla – you have no idea how happy I was to read your comment! Honestly, I think I was walking around with a smile on my face for hours after seeing this. LOL. Thank you so much for the kind words and I’m SO glad to hear that these cupcakes are going to be a tradition for you! 🙂 Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones!
Is there a way to adjust this recipe to make a double layer cake by chance? Thank you!
Just made these again, can’t wait to give them to my father in law tomorrow! Just wanted to add that I believe you forgot the milk in the frosting 🙂 Other than that, these are perfection! Thanks again!!
Hi Kayla,
Hope the cupcakes were a hit! As for the frosting – nope, no milk in this one. I use milk in my regular cupcake frosting, but not for this cream cheese frosting. 🙂
Happy New Year!
Stephanie how many. Upcakes does this make.?
Would this work if I were to make a brown sugar butter cream icing instead of the cream cheese icing?
Hi Angela!
In theory, yes. Brown sugar icing usually has a stronger flavour from the brown sugar, so I can’t say how much of the whisky flavour you’ll get as compared to the regular frosting, but I say go for it!
I swapped out the vanilla in my usual buttercream frosting and replaced it with double the whiskey (ie 1 1/4 tbsp vanilla = 1 1/2 tbsp whisky), so hopefully the brown sugar butter cream icing recipe you are using requires vanilla, so you can make a similar swap.
Keep in mind, you may need to add more powdered sugar to your icing recipe as the extra whisky may make it runnier – the extra powdered sugar will help stiffen it, but that’s something you can adjust as you whip up the icing!
Let me know how it turns out – I’d love to give it a try myself!
It turned out beautifully and thank you for your prompt response in this matter. I wish I had gotten to take a pic.
Can this be made without the cocoa powder? I’m looking for a recipe for a vanilla cake.
Hi Dee!
I’m so sorry for the late response – I’ve been dealing with family health issues so haven’t logged onto the blog for a week. 🙁
Unfortunlately, you can’t just leave out the cocoa powder in this recipe – the measurements of the ingredients will be thrown off and the cupcake probably won’t turn out properly.
Instead, I would recommend taking a vanilla cupcake recipe that has worked for you in the past and incorporating in whisky somehow. Either by replacing the vanilla in the cupcake with whisky or just creating a regular vanilla cupcake and using the whisky frosting recipe that I use above.
You have, however, given me food for thought. It may be time I go back to the kitchen and come up with a vanilla version of this cupcake. 🙂
If you do decide to try creating your own whisky cupcake, I’d love to hear about it!
Will the same batter work for two 6” rounds for a cake?
Can you make this as a cake?
Can I replace the alcohol for milk in the frosting? I’m looking to make these cupcakes for my grandpa
Hi Angela!
The alcohol in the frosting is just for taste, so you can leave it out. As you’re creaming the frosting, if you find it’s getting stiff, then you can add a touch of milk, but otherwise, feel free to skip it altogether!
Thanks for visiting!
Stephanie
Have you ever used this recipe to make a cake I stead of cupcakes? How does it taste?