Like too many years.
I do not know if you know this, but I am huge Harry Potter fan. I know, I know, who the heck isn’t. I am not one of those die-hards or anything, but I have to say, the Harry Potter books are about the only books I have ever read page for page and truly enjoyed. It’s just my era I guess, but I will always love Harry Potter. The series brings back awesome memories for me. I will forever love the Harry Potter marathon weekends on ABC family. They will never get old. Never.
Ok, and I just have to throw this in there too, ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas? Yeah, that is something I look forward to all year-long. Like no joke, that is my favorite thing. Call me whatever you want but, I will always be a 25 Days of Christmas Girl… and don’t judge, you know you are too.
Come every October though, it seems I have Harry Potter on the brain. I mean, it makes sense since October is all about magical, spooky things. Normally, I just watch the movies over and over until I can move on to the Christmas movies, but this year that just was not enough. I was out hiking the other day and I thought back to these broom stick cookies I made. They were one of my very first posts on this blog and the photos are horrific, but the cookies are cute, and so good. I was thinking about how cute they would be with a butterbeer cupcake and that was it, that was when the decision was made. I was making butterbeer cupcakes… death by butterbeer cupcakes. Hey, it’s October. Death By Butterbeer just seemed fitting.
If you are wondering, butterbeer (or at least the butterbeer in this recipe), is basically just butterscotch mixed with a little butter extract. It’s beyond delicious you guys. Super sweet, crazy “fall” like, and I am not going to lie – so addicting. Literally, the butterbeer glaze could be a dessert in itself? I am thinking small espresso mug filled with warm butterbeer glaze, drizzle of chocolate and marshmallows. OH MY GOSH. That would be good. Gotta do that sometime. Cupcakes today though. The cupcake itself is really simple. It’s made with brown sugar and butter extract, but I also added in some vanilla bean and um, chocolate covered toffee bits because they just needed to happen. I have had a bag of bits sitting in my pantry since last fall and these cupcakes just called out to them. They’re a match made in the cupcake heavens. The vanilla beans just add such great flavor. You can never go wrong with vanilla beans. Honestly you just can’t. They work with just about everything and they make recipes that much more special.
For the frosting, I had to go chocolate…and chocolate treacle butter!! It may just be physically impossible for me to have an all non-chocolate dessert. PLUS butterbeer and chocolate together seemed like such a good pairing. Topped off with some chocolate covered pretzels? Yeah, why not? It is finally that time of year again, when chocolate, sugar salt, carbs and all the good stuff is totally acceptable – every single freaking day. Or at least in my head it is. Good months ahead… Really though, this frosting is oh my gosh, GOOD. It’s the whole treacle butter thing which is really just unsulphured molasses and salted butter. It may seem simple, but when combined with a little butterbeer and a little chocolate? Um just, yes!
Finally, I do realize that these photos sort of look like a craft project gone wrong AND most importantly that the scarf is scarlet and white, not scarlet and yellow. I tried so hard to find a scarlet and yellow scarf, but had no luck. I found one online, but I really did not want to wait for it to get it here. So… sorry for the scarlet and white. I tried, really I tried. And the as for the photos themselves, I was SO close to not even showing you these because they are not “my kind of perfect”, but my mom talked me into keeping them. Sorry for my craft project gone wrong, but I promise the cupcakes themselves are delish. Double finally, if you have kids these are the cupcakes that will make you the “cool” mom or dad – guaranteed. If I could, I would bring them into Asher’s school on Halloween, but they have this new rule of no sweets for birthdays and holidays. I get it, but at the same time, it’s so lame. For me, in school class parties filled with the homemade treats where the best. ESPECIALLY on Halloween. Halloween is meant for an all day sugar high.
That’s what butterbeer dreams look like. It’s the glaze and the pretzels and the treacle b butter frosting and most definitely the cupcake. Really it’s the whole darn thing!
