I need your help. I am not a baker. I would never call myself so or pretend to be one. However, on a very rare occasion I will attempted the task of baking from scratch. Usually the results are not pretty, so I tend to stick with doctoring up boxed mixes. But, with so many delicious looking recipes out there, sometimes I have no choice and I have to give in to measuring and mixing ingredients. The reason I’m calling on you, amazing bakers, is that something happened to my precious little mini cupcakes after they came out of the oven, and I’m not sure why it happened.

My most recent attempt at real baking was 7UP cupcakes. It was a recipe that I’ve had for a while. In my attempt to actually make some of my collected recipes, I’m trying to bake one cupcake recipe a month. I figure one a month is doable. In July I made Pink Lemonade Cupcakes (see Cupcake Disaster). Then, in August (just a couple weeks ago) I redeemed myself by making Reese’s Pieces Cupcakes. Both of these were doctored up box mix recipes though, so I was really worried about the 7UP cupcakes. But they sounded too good to not at least try. And with Labor Day weekend bringing summer to a close, I really didn’t want to wait until next summer to bake these. So I did it:

The end result, for the most part, was really good. Perfect for a Labor Day gathering. Light, airy, and the mini sizes were great to just pop in your mouth. However, about half of the batch came out like this:

Basically, the cupcake pulled away from the liner while they were cooling. I’m not sure if this was because of the carbonated beverage added to the batter, or the fact that I put in about 1/2 an egg too many? (I had to half the recipe and when I got to the eggs, I had already added the 3rd egg when I only needed two, so then attempted to remove some of the egg from the top of the batter. If you’ve ever tried this, it’s not easy. In fact, it’s nearly impossible). So bakers, I ask you, why did this happen?

Luckily, this questionable outcome did not effect the taste of the cake, so I ended up just pulling all those out of their wrapper, frosting them, and calling it a day.

I was so happy that these were such a huge hit with my family. They are honest, so I know they are good when my family says they are good.  🙂

Here’s another photo just for fun:

(See my crazy awesome piping skillz? Yeah, too bad each cupcake looked different…)

Here’s the recipe for anyone interested in giving these a try (I had the recipe written down for so long I can’t remember the original source. If you know, please tell us and we will update this post):

7UP cake:
– 3 c. granulated sugar
– 3/4 lb. (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
– 5 eggs
– 3 c. all-purpose flour
– 3/4 c. 7-Up, at room temp
– 2 Tbsp. lemon extract

Preheat the oven to 325. Using a large Bundt pan or a tube pan, because this makes a very big cake, grease and flour the pan or spray it with Baker’s Joy or another nonstick flour-containing spray. Set the pan aside while you make the batter. (I halved the recipe becuase I was only feeding 8 adults and didn’t want a ton of extra’s. I ended up with 4 dozen mini cupcakes and about 4 normal size cupcakes).

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour and 7-Up alternately until all is well incorporated into the batter. Finally, add the lemon extract. Spoon batter into the prepared pan, swirl the top to even it, tap it on the counter a few times to remove the air bubbles, and bake for about an hour and 15 minutes at 325, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Turn out onto wire racks to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting
– 1 container of pre-made lemon frosting
– 1 lime

Take the zest from the lime and mix into the pre-made frosting. Done!

Frost. Eat. Enjoy.

– Posted by Cupcake Crusader, Stacy (Baltimore, MD)