February 9, 2012

Buffalo Wing Cupcakes

With this year's Bufffalo Wing Cupcakes, I've started a tradition: Super Bowl cupcakes (last year's: Mardi Gras King Cupcakes). 


This idea came from Tosh.0 where he said you could be the grossest person at the Super Bowl party by bringing these. I clicked through his link, and thought, yeah, yuck! (Despite the note that they're surprisingly good.)

But then the idea stuck and spun around in the back of my mind all week. I decided, eff it, I'm gonna make them.

So Saturday, I made the cupcakes, and the batter and final product tasted terrible. But I pushed on.

Sunday, I made the blue cheese buttercream frosting, and my friend LBK spread it on the cakes, despite it being thick and not very spreadable. Doubtful.

Come game time, I topped the cupcakes with a popcorn chicken bite tossed in Frank's Red Hot. I then presented the platterful to a roomful of my friends, with no hopes or expectations. This recipe was so outlandish that I really didn't care if we found out collectively that they were only fit for spitting into your napkin.

But... surprisingly, the weird batter created a cornmeal-like taste and the sweet blue cheese frosting offset the spicy cake. It was great. Separately all the elements tasted gross. But together, they worked well. A Buffalo wing cupcake. Alriiiiight.

But one was enough!

Buffalo Wing Cupcakes
from Cupcake Project

1/2 cup Frank's Red Hot
1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sour cream
1 egg
1 cup flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

2 oz. blue cheese
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350*F. Melt hot sauce and butter together in a small pan. Stir in blue cheese and whisk until melted. Remove from heat and stir in brown sugar. Whisk until combined. Let cool until not hot to the touch.

Stir together egg and sour cream in a small bowl, and stir into cooled hot sauce mixture. Mix together dry ingredients and fold into hot sauce mixture until just combined. Pour into lined cupcake tins.

Bake for 20 minutes.

For the frosting, blend butter and blue cheese until smooth and fluffy. Gradually whip in powdered sugar.

Pipe (if you can) frosting onto cooled cupcakes. Top with a hot chicken wing bite.

Makes 10 cupcakes for 10 of your lucky friends.