Butterscotch and Pecan Cupcakes with Cinnamon Sugar Buttercream Icing

On a recent visit to the shop The Essential Ingredient, I managed to buy a few interesting new things. One item that I picked up was Butterscotch Essence. I had no idea how to use it, but planned to bake with it one day.

On the weekend I had a light bulb moment and finally came up with an idea on how I would bake something using the Butterscotch Essence. I decided that I would try to bake Butterscotch and Pecan Cupcakes with Cinnamon Sugar Buttercream Icing.

I decided to open the Butterscotch Essence and see what it smelt like. The smell was so strong, that my husband could smell it when he entered the room.  At this point I was unsure about how this recipe would work.

In the end I decided to use the good old Buttermilk Cupcake recipe base and add 1 teaspoon of the Butterscotch Essence and 1 grams of Riverside All Australian Pecan Nut Pieces. For the icing, I used the usual icing recipe and then added McCormick’s Cinnamon Sugar.

When the cupcakes came out the oven, I was so worried that the cupcakes would taste disgusting.

I ended up taking a very small apprehensive bite of the cupcake. To be my surprise, the cupcake tasted really nice. The butterscotch flavour was not too intense and the pecans were a delicious addition to the flavour. I was so over joyed that I made my Husband eat some. He said they tasted very nice.

For the icing, I decided to add cinnamon sugar. I was going to make a butterscotch buttercream icing, but I thought that might be too much butterscotch. Once I had a taste, it was obvious that the combination of the cinnamon sugar buttercream icing with the cupcakes worked very well.

I was so excited that my experiment worked well. I cannot wait to see what else I can bake using the Butterscotch Essence.