Root Beer Float Cupcakes

It's a long story as to how I got this recipe. Suffice it to say, I have awesome friends. And they have really nice friends that will share recipes with me over facebook.

And it makes it even better when she says "You can make it from scratch, or use a box mix."

Again, this isn't exactly a pinterest thing, but hey... a girl will do crazy things for her brothers' birthday. Even if it means finding recipes to experiment with that aren't on pinterest.

What You Need

Cupcakes:
A yellow cake mix OR all the ingredients for your favorite yellow cake recipe
Root Beer

Frosting:
3 C Powdered Sugar
1 C Butter
1 to 2 Tbs Whipping Cream
Root Beer Extract

Optional:
Straws
Root Beer Hard Candies

What You Do

Make the cake mix or recipe as directed, replacing the liquid in the recipe with root beer. (i.e. the box mix I used called for water and oil and eggs to be added. Replace the water with root beer, but not the oil or eggs.)

Bake cupcakes as directed on box or recipe.

The frosting is just a basic buttercream frosting. Feel free to use your own if you'd rather. Just add as much root beer extract as you want to take it to your preferred rootbeery level.

Cut the straws into 1-2 inch lengths and stick one in each cupcake after frosting. You can also add a root beer hard candy.

My Experience

I've made these 3 times. I've discovered the best combination of cake mix and root beer from my attempts is the Betty Crocker yellow cake mix and Mug root beer.

I've tried each time I made these to make the cupcakes taste more like root beer. The last time I made them, I added 2 1/2 Tbs of root beer extract, but it still didn't get it to the Bursting-With-Root-Beer-ness level I quite expected. Once I have it perfected, I plan to make a vanilla ice cream frosting instead.

Things to Remember
1. If your rootbeer is flat, your cupcakes will be too. Crack open a fresh can for this, it's worth it.
2. These cupcakes raise a bit more than others. Only fill the cups halfway at the most. Otherwise you'll have flattened mushroom clouds for cupcakes.
3. For some reason, my first two batches came out shiny on top, even though they were done. If yours shine, take one out and cut it open when the time is up. If you judge by the shine factor, you might over cook them.
4. Don't judge my frosting skills. They are minimal. And I was in a hurry.