Jack and Coke cupcakes

Preheat oven to 325 degrees…

Pour the half can of coke into a saucepan, and set on a medium heat to boil. I would recommend putting the coke on to simmer before you start to measure the other ingredients, that way you have time for it to reduce and cool before you want to use it. (I would also recommend you use the other half of the can of coke and make a JD and coke to drink while you make these, I always find baking is thirsty work – but that might just be me…)

You want the coke to reduce in volume by around half, to make a coca-cola syrup which you will use to flavor your cupcakes. Keep and eye on it, stir it every once in a while to stop it from forming caramel on the sides of the pan, but you don’t need to be too precise about reducing it.

While the coke is simmering down, measure out your ingredients.

Begin by whisking the two egg whites, pinch of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar, until they reach a soft peak stage. Check on the coke – it should be about done. Once it looks like it’s reduced to about half the volume, take it off the heat and leave to cool.

Back to the egg whites – now sift in the icing/confectioners sugar, and whisk to the stiff peak stage. You want to be able to lift the beater out and have a firm little mountain of egg-whites stand up. Then, sift in half of the flour, and use a silicone spatula or metal spoon to fold in the flour. All of the air in these cupcakes comes from what you whip into the eggs, so you don’t want to knock too much of it out now! Once the first half of the flour is folded in, do the same with the second half of the flour.

By now, your reduced coca-cola should be nicely syrupy and cool. Add two tablespoons of the coke syrup into the cake mix, and gently fold in with the spatula or spoon. If you have leftover syrup, put it in a small container in the fridge – you will probably make a second batch of these cakes very soon!

Put paper liners in a 12-cup muffin/cupcake tin. As this batter is quite soft and runny, I like to gently pour/scrape the batter into a measuring jug and then carefully pour it into each cupcake liner, until they are around 2/3 of the way full – but using all the batter and trying to make sure they are sort-of even. Or to avoid the extra washing-up, you can just glop it in with a spoon – one heaping tablespoon per cupcake liner is usually about right, but use all of the mix. The mix will be very puffy and almost marshmallow-ey – but it doesn’t rise a great deal during baking, so do not worry about over-filling the liners. (They are boozy cupcakes, so no-one will be all that concerned with how far up the cupcake liner they go, trust me! )

Put the cupcakes in to bake for 15-20 minutes, at 325F, middle shelf. Check on them at 15 minutes – you want them to be golden and slightly springy – press gently on the top and see if it feels like the inside is still wet. If it feels squishy, give it a few more minutes, if it feels springy then they’re done.

Move the cakes to a wire rack to cool.

While the cakes cool, it’s time to make the frosting.

Put the cream cheese and syrup (the syrup makes the frosting nice and glossy) in a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk on a medium speed to combine. Sift in 1 cup of the icing sugar, and pour in half of the whiskey, and whisk again. Taste, and then add more sugar and whiskey to taste – I use one and a half or up to two cups of icing sugar – sometimes my cream cheese just seems to be a little wet!

Once the cupcakes are cool, you can either pipe the frosting on, or just spoon it onto the cupcakes and smooth it out with knife dipped in warm water.

Put the frosted cupcakes in the fridge for the frosting to set for 30 minutes. Then eat!

You will have frosting left over. I have tried to make a smaller quantity, but it’s tricky to get the flavor ratio right and the whisking done properly with smaller amounts. You can, of course, double the cupcake recipe to make 24 instead of 12, but the cupcakes are best eaten within 2-3 days, and the frosting keeps well in a sealed container in the fridge for about 4 days, and if I don’t make a second batch of cupcakes soon then I usually use it to frost a carrot-cake.

To make a child-friendly version, I switch JD for vanilla in the frosting – but just a teaspoon, so you will need less sugar; or use a dash of cherry essence and a little (a tablespoon) of cherry Kool Aid powder to make cherry-coke cupcakes.