A coworker clued me into a drink that tastes like a bowl of a certain toucan-endorsed cereal. It quickly became my baker friend and my favorite sweet boozy concoction and we decided alcohol-laced cupcakes were the logical next step. Get ready to fall in love.

Start with a basic vanilla cake recipe.  We’re going to cut the milk from the mixture and add the first of two naughty replacements.  Now, the alcohol is going to bake out of the batter, but don’t you worry.  We also substituted the milk in a post-bake filling to inject into each cupcake.  You get an extract effect throughout the cake and the itty bitty full-strength kick from the filling.

Our first star of the recipe.  RumChata, if you don’t know, is horchata (a milky, vanilla-and-cinnamon beverage) and rum in one neat little bottle.  This guy is replacing all of the milk in our vanilla cake recipe and half the milk in our filling recipe (which is vanilla pudding).

Bake ’em up like normal cupcakes.  Easy.  Let’s move on to our buttercream topping, whipped up with the help of our second star.

This is vodka on the candy level.  Three Olives has a range of ultra-sweet flavors, including Loopy, which tastes like the aforementioned cereal.  No joke.  Have a little taste of your childhood in a very adult way.

Whipped frosting and cream is like fresh fallen snow for me.  I just want to mess it up.  Like, bad.  But I didn’t.  My friend and I divided the topping into 6 equal parts and dyed them – one for each of the different colors of loops in that cereal.

To fill cupcakes, you have two options.  You can inject them, which we did not do because neither of us has an injector.  You can also cut out a tiny bit of the middle of the cupcake (do not go all the way to the bottom) and…

…fill it with (in this case) RumChata pudding.  Just use instant pudding and replace half the milk with RumChata.  Believe me, that’s all you need.

They look like kiddy cupcakes.  Don’t let the kids have them.  These happened to be for my mom’s birthday, and even that may have been a questionable lapse in judgement on my part.  Kidding!

Boozy Fruit Loops Cupcakes

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 18 – 24 minutes
Yield: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:
1/2 cup unsalted, softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup cold RumChata

Cupcake Filling:
1 package vanilla instant pudding (prepared as directed, except instead of 1 part milk, use 1/2 part milk and 1/2 part RumChata)

Loopy Vodka Buttercream:
1 cup unsalted, softened butter
3 cups powdered sugar
2 – 3 tbsp Three Olives Loopy vodka

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  To prepare cupcake batter, first combine all the dry ingredients. Then cream butter and sugar in large bowl.  Add eggs one at a time and beat after each one.  Add vanilla extract.  Add combined dry ingredients and then RumChata.  Divide batter evenly between 12 lined muffin tins and bake for 18-24 minutes or until toothpick inserted in cupcake comes out clean.

2.  To prepare Loopy vodka buttercream, cream butter and sugar in large bowl.  Add vodka one tablespoon at a time, tasting after each addition until cream reaches desired flavor and consistency.  Optional as shown in photo: Divide butter cream into six equal parts and dye red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple using food coloring.

3.  When cupcakes have cooled completely, use a knife to remove a small piece from the center of the cupcake (but be sure not to cut through to the bottom).  Add a small spoonful of prepared RumChata pudding to each cupcake.

4.  Using pastry bag (or a small ziplock with the corner snipped off), add topping to cupcakes in spiral motion.  Note: These must stay refrigerated until serving.

Adapted from: Classic Vanilla Cupcakes and Whipped Cream Vodka Buttercream