These cupcakes have been on my mind for a while now and today they finally came into fruition. Now believe me, I know the deal: When it comes to Good & Plenty® candy or black licorice flavored candy you either love it or you hate it. I love it. Sometimes I even crave it. I usually have a stash put away for those moments, but recently I bought an extra box so I could use it with the cupcakes I was dreaming of.
I took a basic vanilla cupcake recipe that I found from Better Homes and Gardens, omitted the vanilla, and replaced it with the goodness that makes these my Good & Plenty® cupcakes! The texture is a little different than I am used to since I prefer a more spongy cake, but it’s still yummy. I think that even if you don’t care so much for black licorice flavored treats, you might enjoy these because they have a much more subtle flavor.
Here is the cupcake recipe, and the frosting recipe follows…
Good & Plenty® Cupcakes (Makes 1 dozen)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon anise extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup heavy (whipping) cream
Directions:
Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners.
In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
In a large bowl, beat softened butter until creamy on medium-high speed for about 30 seconds. Beat in the sugar and mix for about a minute. Add anise extract, almond extract, whole egg and 2 egg yolks and beat again until combined.
Add in half of the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture and blend on low speed. Add in half of the heavy whipping cream and blend. Add in the rest of the flour mixture, blend, and add in the rest of the cream. Mix everything on low speed until well combined, scraping down the sides of your bowl. *Your batter will be thick*.
Spoon the batter into your prepared muffin cups (I like to use a 1 1/2″ ice cream/cookie scoop for this). Fill only about 2/3 full.
Bake for about 20 minutes (or until a toothpick or fork inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean) at 325 degrees. Cool the muffin pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then remove the cupcakes from the pan to cool completely on a wire rack. Frost with my Good & Plenty® frosting found below!
Good & Plenty® Frosting Recipe
3 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 1/2 teaspoons anise extract
2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
In a mixing bowl, beat the softened butter until creamy. Add in the sugar and blend well. Add in the anise extract and the cream and combine well. It should be nice and light and fluffy. I added in some rose-colored gel to get the pink color (found at craft stores). Frost your cupcakes the way you’d like. Make sure to stick a few candies on top for decoration!
{For my cupcakes featured here, I took a #12 round tip and a piping bag and went around the outside edge to make a “ring”. Then I sprinkled on a combination of pink, white and black nonpareils that I mixed up. I took another piping bag with a # 1M star tip and made the swirl. I added a few Good & Plenty® candies on top and then I happily scarfed one down.}
So who out there loves their Good & Plenty® candy like Charlie?
~Micha
Zim on a Whim 