Root Beer Float Cupcakes

Sometimes, you find yourself doing & creating things out of love, so you sacrifice yourself a bit & endure things you despise. These cupcakes fall into that category for me: Root Beer. Just the words turn my stomach, but the boys in my house love it. So...my 13-year-old son brought it up in passing once & thought, "Why not?"

I wanted to make these to taste like *gag* a root beer float. So, I found root beer flavoring & knew that's what I should use. I wanted to use my vanilla buttercream icing as the "ice cream" topper. I had plans to use some leftover Twizzlers as straws, like I do for my slushie cakes.

Keep in mind that I love doing quality control on my cupcakes...but not this time. I had to solely rely on my root beer lovers to give me their opinions & critiques. I served 'em up cold (root beer float - DUH!) but without the Twizzler straws. Apparently my hubby knew we had some & finished them off. Go figure.

As it turns out, as strong as they smelled to me (and made want to lose my lunch), the baking process weakened the root beer taste. So, I will have to try these again, against MY best judgement, and make sure to include the Twizzler straws next time, too.

I know that by becoming a cupcaker, people are going to ask for some odd flavors once in a while, and sometimes flavors we despise. Guess I gotta learn to suck it up & dive in for the clientele!