Maple Bourbon Chocolate Cupcakes

April 26, 2024

Her Soul to Take by Harley Laroux is the first book in the Souls Trilogy, which is set in Abelaum, a fictional town in the Pacific Northwest. Each book in the trilogy follows a different couple through a similar timeline as they each do their part to try to prevent the local cult from awakening an ancient evil god.

An ancient evil wakes.
This town is full of secrets and the darkness runs deep.
Three women, tangled in a web of ancient oaths and magic, desire and danger, sacrifice and death. One fights to survive. One fights for revenge. One fights to see it all finally end.

This dark romance book features Rae, a human woman with terrible survival instincts who moves back to her dad’s hometown to attend the local university and discovers that the local cult wants to use her to help unleash an ancient evil god. Leon, a demon once imprisoned by the cult, tries to help her survive and fight back against the cult.

In one particular scene in this book, the suspected cult leader’s daughter, Victoria Hadleigh, attempts to befriend Rae and offers her some homemade maple bourbon chocolate cupcakes as a way to invite her to the annual Hadleigh Halloween party.

Victoria pulled the lid off her Tupperware, revealing chocolate cupcakes within. Each one was beautifully decorated, with sparkles of purple edible glitter and little candy ghosts. “I’m going to make a bunch for the Halloween party, but I wanted to try out the recipe first. Are they boozy enough? They’re bourbon chocolate maple.”

It was hands-down one of the best cupcakes I’d ever eaten. I knew it was a ridiculous judgement of character, but I didn’t feel like a death cult member would be baking delicious cupcakes for her friends. Was I really supposed to believe that Victoria worshipped some ancient God?
-Chapter 25, Her Soul to Take by Harley Laroux

Although these cupcakes are supposed to be more of an autumnal treat, they sounded too delicious for me to wait until this fall to recreate them. I used a variation of the recipe for Chocolate Devil’s Food Cake in Zoë Bakes Cakes by Zoë Franҫois to make these cupcakes. My coworkers, who are my taste testers for this blog, gave these cupcakes great reviews, so I hope you will enjoy these cupcakes as well.

Maple Bourbon Chocolate Cupcakes

SERVINGS: About 24 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

MAPLE BOURBON CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

2 1/3 cups cake flour  (Note 1)
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup cocoa powder (sifted if lumpy)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup hot water
1/3 cup bourbon
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
½ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup maple syrup  (optional)

MAPLE BOURBON FROSTING

¾ lb. cream cheese, at room temperature
¾ cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon maple syrup
1-2 teaspoons bourbon
2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

MAPLE BOURBON CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

1. Preheat the oven to 350⁰F. Line two 12-cup regular cupcake tins with paper liners or generously oil the cups. If using paper liners, spray them with nonstick cooking spray or the cupcakes may stick to the paper.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a small bowl, stir the hot water and bourbon together.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla extract.
   
5. Add the egg mixture and half of the bourbon mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until smooth.
6. Slowly add the remaining half of the bourbon mixture and whisk until the batter is blended. The batter will be very thin.
7. Divide batter evenly into the prepared cupcake tins, filling cups about ¾ full.
8. Bake for about 20 minutes, rotating the cupcake tins midway through the baking time, until a cake tester (or toothpick) inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out mostly clean with just a few crumbs clinging to it.
9. Remove from the oven and let cool in the tins on wire racks for about 5-10 minutes.
10. Optional: Brush the top of each cupcake with ½ - 1 teaspoon of maple syrup.
11. Then remove cupcakes from the tins and let cool completely on the wire racks before frosting the cupcakes.

MAPLE BOURBON FROSTING

1. Place the cream cheese in a large bowl and beat with a spoon or a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until it’s smooth and there are no lumps. Scrape down the sides of the bowl often while mixing.
2. Add the butter to the cream cheese and continue mixing until smooth, scraping often.
3. Mix the maple syrup and bourbon into the cream cheese mixture.
4. Slowly add the confectioners’ sugar and continue mixing until smooth.
5. If the frosting is thin and soft, you may want to chill it to give it more body. Refrigerate the frosting until firm, up to 24 hours, and then mix until smooth.

RECIPE NOTES

1. When I tested this recipe, I used White Lily all purpose flour, but cake flour is a good substitute if White Lily all purpose flour is not available. The following substitution can also be used if cake flour is not available: For 2 1/3 cups cake flour, measure out 2 1/3 cups of all purpose flour. Then remove ¼ cup of the all purpose flour and replace it with ¼ cup of cornstarch. Sift the all purpose flour and cornstarch together.