Drenched in Kahlua Cupcakes

Yesterday was a great day.  Yes, my friends, it was National Kahlua Day.  So what did I do?  I ran to the closest liquor store that's open on Mondays and bought myself a little, errr, big bottle of my favorite liquor.

For these cupcakes, I took my classic chocolate cupcake recipe and amped it up. I substituted buttermilk for regular milk, the sugar ratios are a little different, and of course, they're drenched in Kahlua.  The frosting is also my classic buttercream, but I also changed it up a little bit.  Instead of the paddle attachment, I used a the whisk and of course, added Kahlua instead of vanilla.  Oh yum.

Kahlua drenched Chocolate cupcakes
Makes approx 21 cupcakes (would make more if you put less batter in the cups)

½ cup vegetable oil
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
½ cup lightly packed brown sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs at room temperature

1 ¾ cup all purpose flour
¾ cup dark chocolate cocoa powder
1 tablespoon espresso powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup hot water

Kahlua - yes, a whole bottle.

1. Preheat oven to 375 F degrees. Line your cupcake pan with liners.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, mix together the oil, sugars, vanilla, and eggs until completely combined or about 2 minutes.
3. Pour yourself a drink. Yes, use the Kahlua you just bought for these cupcakes. Take a big drink.
4. While they are mixing, whisk together the flour, cocoa, espresso powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
5. Alternating flour and buttermilk, add the flour in thirds, beginning and ending with the flour. Scrape the sides and only mix until combined.
6. Fold in the hot water and mix until combined.
7. Fill Cupcake liners ¾ full.
8. Take another drink.
9. Bake for 10 minutes then rotate pan. Bake another 5 minutes.
10. Who are we kidding here. By now, you'll need to pour another drink to sip on while these are cooking.
11. Cool in pans for 5 minutes then to a wire wrack to finish.
12. While still warm, poke 8-9 holes in the cupcakes with a toothpic.
13. Using a brush, drench the cupcakes with Kahlua. Three times. Yes, you want LOTS of Kahlua in your cupcakes.

Kahlua Buttercream
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2lbs (1 bag) of powdered sugar, sifted
¼ cup Kahlua
¼ cup milk

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer using the WHISK attachment, whip the butter.
2. Do you still have your drink?  Take a sip, or gulp.
3. One cup at a time, add the sifted powdered sugar. Scraping the sides of the bowl after each addition and mixing until thoroughly combined.
4. Between each addition of sugar, alternate between adding the Kahlua and milk.
5. Whip on high for 2-3 minutes.
6. Chill for 5-10 minutes before piping onto cupcakes.
7. Dust each cupcake with dark chocolate cocoa powder.
8. Pour one last drink, get a cupcake, and relax!