Jack Daniels Cupcakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup strong coffee
1/2 cup Jack Daniels whiskey
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large bowl, stir the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt together.

In a separate large bowl, combine the eggs, coffee, whiskey, buttermilk and oil.

Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and whisk until smooth.

Spoon the mixture into prepared cupcake wrappers.

Bake for about 18-20 minutes until the tops spring back when lightly pressed.

Cool completely before frosting.

Notes:  I didn't realize beforehand that I didn't have 2 cups worth of brown sugar, so I substituted white sugar...they still turned out good, but next time I'll test with brown sugar to see if there's a difference.

I used cream cheese frosting...the strong flavor of the frosting takes away a bit from the cupcake, I recommend trying vanilla, or I did find a JD Icing recipe you can test out!

Frosting:

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

3 cups powdered sugar

Jack Daniels

3 tbsp strong coffee

Beat together butter, powdered sugar and strong coffee.

Then add Jack Daniels until it gets to the consistency of icing.

Made these as a test-run for the ones I plan on making for our wedding.  Ignore the icing in the photos, my children like cream cheese frosting and decided since they weren't allowed to eat the cupcakes, they'd at least test out the icing.  *sigh*