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Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Mountain Dew Cupcakes & JOB UPDATE!

One will never know the maximum joy of licking the beaters until after being told you can't... Not that I had to be told. But it's common sense that when you work in a bakery you DON'T lick the beaters! At work I'm surrounded by cake mix, cookie dough, chocolate ganache, etc. all day. It's torture holding my tongue back from what it truly desires! (PS: I LOVE MY JOB!) So naturally when I got home today, I began my usual Tuesday cupcakes with an unusual sense of intensity. As soon as the cupcakes hit the oven, my heart became filled with satisfaction as I proceeded to lick every speck of batter off the beaters, spatulas, bowls, hands, elbows, and ice cream scoop. Oh the wonders of being a home baker! Anyways... let's get to the cupcakes! Mountain Dew Cupcakes won with 51% of the votes. Awesome! I used a recipe from Quirky Cupcakes (ya know, the genius behind Cupcake Hero!). I tweaked it just a bit because Mt. Dew is an orange based soda, and the recipe was solely lemon/lime. I cut back on some of the lemon/lime flavor and added orange juice concentrate. They came out great! I completely invented the frosting. I kinda made it up as I went along. I know if Natalie (from Bake & Destroy) reads this, she'll probably have a myocardial infarction when she sees the high fructose corn syrup cocktail that goes into it!
Ingredients...Ready to be baked!Cooling and smelling good!Citrus waiting to fulfill it's destiny...
A small scoop of frosting on each one...
(There are only 11 because one "accidentally" broke when I was taking it out of the pan)
Flatten out the top...Throw on some sprinkles... and BAM!
Mr. Mountain Dew Cupcake, welcome to the world.
So overall, these cupcakes do not taste like Mt. Dew... but as close as you can get without having access to the wondrous ingredients that make Dew so tasty! They are a delicious triple citrus cupcake. So suck on that.

Mountain Dew Cupcakes (adapted from Quirky Cupcake)
Makes 12 cupcakes

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp
1 cup sugar (could cut back to 3/4 next time because the Dew adds sweetness)
2 large eggs, at room temp
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons Mountain Dew
2 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed (do not use ready-to-drink orange juice)
zest from 1/2 lemon and 1/2 lime (you will used the zest from the other half in the frosting)
1 1/4 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper or foil liners.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. In a measuring cup, combine Mt. Dew and concentrated orange juice.
3. Combine butter, sugar, and zest in a large bowl. With a hand mixer on medium-high speed, beat until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Scrape the sides of the bowl before adding flour.
4. Add dry mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the wet in 2 additions, beating on low speed until just combined. (I like to finish mixing with a spatula after the last addition of flour.)
5. Pour batter into cupcake papers about 2/3 full. Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on wire racks.

For the frosting (invented by me):
1 cup Mountain Dew
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp
2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
zest from 1/2 lemon and 1/2 lime (you might not use all of it)

1. In a saucepan, bring 1 cup of Mt. Dew to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat until it no longer bubbles (medium-low or low depending on your stove). Let Mt. Dew evaporate for about 15 minutes. It should reduce by 3/4. You should end up with between 2 tablespoons and 1/4 cup of syrup. Pour it in a small glass measuring cup to cool.

2. Sift the confectioners' sugar into a mixing bowl. Add butter and beat, gradually increasing speed to high, until combined. Pour in heavy cream and Mt. Dew syrup. Continue mixing on high until fluffy. Add OJ concentrate, zest (and food coloring). Mix on low speed until combined.

Overall rating on a scale of 1-5
Moistness: 5
Tenderness: 5
Frosting: 4 (too sweet for me!)

38 comments:

CB said...

Love me some of that great soda caffeine! Now in cupcake form. YUM! I definitely added this to my (ever-growing) must bake list!
/Clara

MsC said...

I can't stand the Dew, but my husband loves it...gonna have to try these out for him! They look fab!

Jannett said...

interesting combo...dan said he would like to try them out... :)

Anonymous said...

My husband is addicted to Mt. Dew (although he switched to diet a couple of years ago). I need to make these very soon. Thank you for the awesome recipe!

Ingrid_3Bs said...

Your post was hilarious! Being surrounded by all that yumminess and not being able to just take a taste would be a major bummer. :-(
That's great that you got the job and it's working for you.

city said...

yeah! Do the Dew in the cupcake form! I'm a huge fan of Mt Dew cupcakes, they give me such a sugar high. Your frosting recipe was interesting but looks great on the cuppies!

Congrats on the new job, bummer the beaters are off limits :-P

Gigi said...

The icing on them looks unbelievable! I may have to make these for Mr. Gigi Cakes.

Baking Housewife said...

The cakes look fab! you have to share how you abstain from licking the spatula. I swear i'm gonna get fat as i can't seem to resist licking the bowl, spatula or anything covered in mixture everytime!!

Honeyed Hashette said...

You job sounds great! I have often wondered how I would hold back from licking if I ever worked in a bakery. It is SO HARD NOT TO!

These cupcakes sound great! My hubby LOVES Mt. Dew!

marae said...

How fun is that green frosting?!?! I love them. Am I the only dodo who didn't know that MD was an orange based drink? I always just thought it was lemon lime. Doh!

Katy said...

and, i'm drinking a mountain dew right now (quite a coincidence). would this work with diet mountain dew, or probably not?

Lot-O-Choc said...

mm wow these sound good, to be honest ive never had mountain dew before cause we dont have it england but ive heard of it and it definately sounds like something I would want to try :)

Nevis said...

Very cool! :)

cramitinyourface said...

you know im all about some mt. dew!!!


mm'

Megan said...

That looks interesting. Cool news about your job. Good luck. I too would have a hard time not licking the spoons if I worked in a place where all you did all day long was bake. :)

Unknown said...

glad your job is going well!
i voted for these cupcakes, but i don't know if i could handle the sweetness of mt. dew.... were these exceptionally sweet?

Coby said...

I love the sound of these! I adore they way they look too:) I am incredibly impressed with your creative skills!

Jen said...

Glad the job is going well!! It's WAY hard not to lick the batter when you're baking for others!

Snooky doodle said...

These look good. Pity i can t find Mt Dew and concentrated orange jiuce here. Can i use any other substitute.
Im glad you like your job :-)

Snooky doodle said...

Thanks :-)

ingegerd said...

They look really nice!love that green colour!Mt.Dew is it soda?!
Good luck for the job!!!

Dee said...

Everytime I pop by I know I'm going to see something amazing :) Glad your job rocks!

Ingrid_3Bs said...

Happy Birthday, OL' Lady! Ha-ha, hope you have a wonderful one!
Ingrid :-)

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday to you! I hope someone bakes you cupcakes

CookiePie said...

I'm so glad you're enjoying your new job!

These cupcakes are great - what a fantastic idea, and they look delicious!

Liv said...

I love Mt. Dew, so I may have to try this recipe out...thanks :)
And happy birthday!! (Mine's on Sunday...I'm a year older than you!) :)

Adam said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Becky @ Project Domestication said...

happy happy birthday! i love your blog! my hubby would love these.

-Tee- said...

I am nominating your for a blog award! I love this site!! Keep it up :o)

tees-closet.blogspot.com

Star said...

Way, way back in the day we used to make a seven-up cake and poke holes in the layers, which we drizzled jello over to fill them. So you had a rainbow thing going inside.

123 said...

You are a freaking genius! I like to substitute ingredients in my cupcakes and even i havent thought od this, nice work fellow cupcaker-ateir. lol

Anonymous said...

i made this for my boyfriend. the cupcakes turned out good but the frosting was too liquidy:-/

Liz said...

I LOVE this recipe! I've already made these twice. so delicious. The frosting is the best.

I actually took this recipe and used it to make some really goofy Cthulhu cupcakes. I've posted pictures on my blog if you want to see: http://skizzensection.net/blog/?p=55

Kat said...

Wow, those look and sound fabulous! I am definitely trying this recipe!
Thanks! *smile*

Kevin said...

This gives me the idea to make super caffeinated cupcakes using monster instead of mountain dew.....hehe :D
love the recipe!

glo said...

I am so excited to try this for my son's birthday. He asked if I could make a cake from Mountain Dew and here it is! Does the Mountain Dew need to be cold or room temperature?
Thanks!
Gloria

Anonymous said...

I wanted to make these for my husband, and I failed! The flavor was great (sweet, but it's mountain dew), but my texture was all off. My cakes stuck to the wrapper and got hard, and my icing was runny. Not sure what I did wrong :(

Anonymous said...

I made the cupcakes today, and they turned out absolutely delicious! I took your concerns into mind about the using 3/4 cup of sugar in the batter, and that the icing was too sweet for you, so I only used 1 cup of sugar instead of 2 cups. Both parts turned out great - not too sweet at all!

I couldn't get ahold of any confectioners' sugar, so I had to use granulated, but that still went very well. Thinking about using powdered sugar next time to see what happens (plus it's easier to find and probably cheaper than confectioners' sugar).

Also, I had noticed that the batter has a faint flavor of pumkin pie over the Mountain Dew flavor. Other than that, I found that the cupcakes tasted very much like the drink! In fact, it mostly reminded me of the MD chapstick that I once owned. Good stuff. lol

Thanks for the amazing recipe!