Red Bull and Pop Rock Cupcakes

VICTORY IS MINE!!!!

I’ve been fixated on creating a Red Bull cupcake featuring pop rocks for 3 months. The mad-hatter plan was to mix my unhealthy obsession with energy drinks with popping candy a la Heston Blumenthal’s “ejaculating cake”, into a glorious cupcake form.

Attempt One and Two were both less than awesome. The big problems were the density, texture, flavour and the pop-rocks going soggy. Ok, yeah, everything was a problem.

After posting my defeat on Twitter, bunches of suggestions flooded in.

• noted the composition of Red Bull might not be right for use in a butter cake,

• Conor at Hold The Beef suggested using a Red Bull syrup, and

• Julia at Leave Room for Dessert suggested letting the liquid reduce even more.

• got me thinking about pop-rock chemistry. After all, how did Cadbury manage to get popping candy into their chocolate bars? And how did Heston get pop-rocks into the biscuit base of his cake? Tracking down the recipe on Chubby Hubby (love the name, BTW) revealed the common denominator. Pop rocks seem to retain their popping awesomeness when protected by a layer of fat.

• And when Christy at Five Types of Sugar mentioned she’d used Moscato successfully in cupcakes before, the light-bulb went off.

I knew there were scone recipes which used lemonade to create their fluffiness. Surely it’s been done successfully in cakes. Making Google my biatch, I went on a recipe scavenge.

I encountered the tragic diet cola cupcakes in my travels, which involve tipping a can of Diet Coke into a packet mix in the name of low calorie treats. Gross, gross and gross! Although Nigella Lawson does a mean Chocolate-Cola cake so I believe.

My despair was soon replaced with joy when I stumbled onto these Root Beer cupcakes. Resembling the chemistry of a Red Velvet cake, this recipe filled me with much hope and gladness. Bonus: this recipe is egg and dairy free!

I amicably parted ways with the tart-tasting Red Bull and brought in a sweet can of Mother.

Then I raided the confectionary aisle and got me some Cadbury chocolate popping candy….

… and got to task changing the recipe. The plan was to bake Mother into the cakes, with a topping of grated pop-rock chocolate stuck on with a little sugar syrup.

And bloody hell, it worked!!!! WE DID IT!!! These cupcake rose beautifully and were light and fluffy. The flavour is much like a sticky-blueberry muffin. I’d even be happy to leave off the topping and eat these plain, or maybe with a warm citrus syrup, as they’re quite sweet as you could imagine

Red Bull, erm, “Mother” cupcakes, with Chocolate Popping Candy Topping

A Cake Mistress original

YOU WILL NEED

1 cup “Mother” energy drink
3/4 cup Caster Sugar
1/2 teaspoon White Wine Vinegar
1/3 cup Vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 3/4 cup Plain Flour
3/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt

1 block of Cadbury Chocolate Popping Candy
2 teaspoons White sugar
1 teaspoon boiling water

Makes 12 cupcakes

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 180c. Line a 12-pan muffin tray.
2. Pour the energy drink and vinegar into a medium size bowl. Pour in the sugar and oil, whisking together until frothy.
3. Add the vanilla, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
4. Sift the flour into the mixture in three additions, being careful not to overmix each time.
5. Fill each muffin pan 3/4 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until they turn a light golden brown and the tops spring back when touched. Leave on a wire rack to cool.
6. Meanwhile, grate or chop 80g of the chocolate popping candy.
7. In a small bowl, mix the sugar with the boiling water until the sugar fully dissolves.
8. When the cupcakes are cool, brush the tops with a little sugar-syrup and generously sprinkle the tops with the grated chocolate. Don’t be afraid to use force to jam as much chocolate on top as humanly possible

EDIT:

I did a bit more research on pop-rock chemistry (which isn’t a chemical reaction after all). Given how the popping sensation is created, finely grating the pop-rocks will make them less effective. My serving suggestion is to top the cupcakes with a little sugar syrup to make them sticky, keep aside a few packets of popping candy and then sprinkle the pop rocks over the tops of each cupcake only when you are ready to serve them.

xx Cake Mistress