Jack Daniels Buttercream Frosting

So yesterday, I showed you how to make Coca-Cola cupcakes, but today, let's add something a little more adult to the mix.

I was craving something less chocolaty for the frosting, so I thought maybe a Jack Daniels buttercream would suit the coke confection. I did a quick Google search and found others have tried it successfully, so why not give it a shot?

WARNING: Much of this icing was made by testing repeatedly to get the right mix. I will include measurements at the bottom, but please keep in mind they are relative to how much sugar vs. how much Jack you want to taste.

First off, set aside 1 and a 1/2 sticks of butter to adjust to room temperature. Cut up into smaller pieces and place in the bowl of an electric mixer (or you can use your hand mixer).

Whip the butter until it's light and fluffy. This takes forever, and is a pain in the butt, but carry on because it's worth it.

When the butter is light and fluffy, add 2 beat eggs and continue to mix. This is where your tastebuds start making decisions. The recipe I used called for 6 cups of confectioners sugar and 6 tablespoons of Jack, but that's not what ended up happening.

The trick is to add the confectioner's sugar slooooooooowly, in tablespoons, and as you go, just take little tastes to see if it tastes like icing yet. Once you feel like the sugar content is good, add the Jack, one tablespoon at a time. At that point, it will get the smooth, buttercream consistency. You want something spreadable, not drippy and not like a paste.

Ultimately, I think I ended up using more like 4 cups of confectioner's sugar and 4 tablespoons of Jack.

One of my recent wedding gifts was a Wilton Dessert Decorator kit and it is SO fancy. For some reason, I got it into my head that decorating would be a piece of cake (heh heh. See what I did there?), but NOOOOOO.

First of all, I have to give mad props to cake decorators out there, because cake decorating takes: strong hands, strong eyes and strong patience.

My icing looked, as usual, like poop. It will obviously take some practice! I eventually gave up and just smeared the icing on the rest of the cupcakes.

As for the Jack & Coke combo, I will say it was good, but a bit strange. If you look at the cupcake, you expect chocolate with vanilla frosting, so it was a bit jarring to then taste chocolaty coke and jack and sugar. But it was definitely interesting in a good way. If I were a better decorator, I would top the cupcakes with the Haribo Coke gummies; another blogger suggested a witty gummy lime slice to complement the cocktail.

Ingredients

• 4 to 6 cups of Confectioners Sugar
• 4 to 6 tablespoons of Jack Daniels
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 sticks of butter at room temperature