Happy holiday season everyone!! As I mentioned in yesterday’s cooling rack review, I made some delicious holiday cupcakes for hubby before he went back to California to handle stuff for his mom’s estate.  This recipe is out of Janell Brown’s “One Sweet Year of Cupcakes” cookbook. I bought it when I was at the Pinner’s Conference last month. If you don’t know Janell, you should. She won Cupcake Wars September 2012 and has two shops here in Utah called One Sweet Slice.  I’m so very fortunate to have a great cupcake shop like her’s fairly close to work.  So, I took on her vanilla bean cupcake recipe for hubby.

Her recipe calls for Vanilla Bean Paste and I could not find that anywhere so I had to order it on Amazon.com.  Good thing we have Prime since I had a bit of a travel deadline.  But I think it’s the icing that made these unique. Since I don’t want to publish her recipe here since it’s how she earns her living, I’ll focus on the icing.

The icing couldn’t be simpler. It’s 1 cup heavy whipping cream, 1 Tablespoon sugar and a half teaspoon of LorAnn Oils Rum Emulsion.  Just the half teaspoon is enough. An emulsion is stronger in flavor and you don’t want to overpower the cupcake. I put it all in my KitchenAid Stand Mixer, attached the whipping blade and turned it on medium high until little peaks started to form.  You can put it in a bowl and whisk it manually, but I use my mixer for everything! The great thing about the icing recipe is you can flavor it any way you want. I have several oils that I use for recipes so these are versatile.  For this recipe, I sprinkled the top with cinnamon an put a 1/3 of a cinnamon stick in it for decor. If there is one think I learned at the Pinner’s Conference is that decorated cupcakes seem so much more appetizing.

So, next time you want something a little lighter, try a whipped cream icing instead of cream cheese or buttercream. Whip up your favorite cupcakes then add in your favorite flavor, give it some decor and you’re set!

For more delicious desserts, follow my Seriously Sweet Stuff board on Pinterest.

Follow Lori’s Culinary’s board Seriously Sweet Stuff on Pinterest.