(upbeat music) - Hey, everyone, Stephanie here from "The Baking Journal."

Today, we are making gin and tonic cupcakes and I have a special surprise for everyone.

I have a friend who knows all there is to know about gin, so stick around and let's make some cupcakes.

(upbeat music continues) Hey everyone, as promised, here is A.J.

- Hi, Stephanie.

Hi.

- Hey.

- What I consider myself is a gin-tellectual, so I actually pride myself on knowing a lot about gin.

I've traveled all over the world, Asia, Europe, South America, and brought back gins to my collection.

And the interesting thing about gin is it really starts as vodka without any flavors, and then they add the botanicals to them.

And then depending on where you get those botanicals, it's gonna be totally different, that flavor of gin.

- Very cool, so A.J.

is gonna hang out while I get the glaze and the icing started.

But he's comin' back to make cupcakes with us, so stick around.

This gin syrup glaze really adds to the deliciousness of these cupcakes.

I'm combining sugar, a little gin, and elderflower tonic.

Bring the mixture to a boil (whisk clacking) and simmer it until it thickens.

It should take about five minutes.

Set that aside to cool and we are onto our icing.

Beat room temperature butter until creamy, and then add confectioner sugar in batches, so you don't get sugar all over yourself and the kitchen.

Trust me, I speak from experience.

Add salt, vanilla, a little freshly squeezed lime juice, and elderflower liqueur, what fabulous flavors.

Beat it all together until well combined, and don't forget to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

(mixer whirring) We just wanna mix it long enough to get it nice and creamy, and I think we have it.

So our glaze is finished and our icing is ready.

Now, we're gonna bring A.J.

back on, and we're gonna bake us up some gin and tonic cupcakes.

So I just have to say that I am so excited to have A.J.

here to help me, and as you can see, we have matching aprons here just because this is a special thing for me.

So, A.J., here you go.

- Yes.

Thank you.

- This is all-purpose flour that we are just going to put together with our baking powder and salt.

So dump that in.

- [A.J.]

Baking powder and salt.

- All at once, yep, and whisk that around.

(bowl clatters) (upbeat music continues) All right, I think we're good.

- All right.

- Thank you.

Next up, we're gonna cream our butter with sugar, so we have one cup of butter goin' in, thank you.

And our granulated sugar all goes in.

- And sugar.

All right, okay.

- Excellent.

So now, we lower that mixer and start it out on low, just so we don't get sugar all over the place.

(mixer humming) - Okay.

- And we're just going to cream that together.

- Slowly increase?

- Yes, and slowly increase (mixer whirring) until the butter gets light and fluffy looking.

Okay, A.J., I think that's looking good.

- All right.

All right, this looks very soft.

- [Stephanie] And fluffy.

- [A.J.]

Yes.

(Stephanie laughs) - So I just learned that A.J.

has another skill that I'm really excited about and that's cracking eggs, which is what he is going to do next.

- All right, I'm gonna show you a little something today, Stephanie.

- All right, awesome, yeah.

- Okay.

- Okay, all right.

So here, we'll just grab this for you and away you go.

(egg cracking) So sweet.

(A.J.

and Stephanie laugh) - And we wanna go ahead and mix it?

- Mix it in, yep.

- Okay.

(upbeat music continues) - [Stephanie] The last one?

- [A.J.]

Uh-huh.

- [Stephanie] Let me try.

Well, next up.

- [A.J.]

All right, lemme see.

So you gotta get a good crack, (egg cracks) enough to like split it almost all the way through.

- All right.

- [A.J.]

And then you just pry.

- [Stephanie] Pry, okay, all right.

Now watch me get shells in there, but go ahead, that's all right.

(A.J.

laughing) - All right, I think it's up to you.

- Awesome, I'm gonna try.

Here we go guys.

This could a total disaster.

All right.

(egg cracks) Okay, we're gonna do this.

- [A.J.]

You got it.

- [Stephanie] And then we're going to pry.

(Stephanie exclaims) - [A.J.]

Great job.

(A.J.

and Stephanie laughing) Awesome.

- Awesome, alright.

(mixer whirring) That was a first, okay.

- Beginner's luck, huh?

- Very good, exactly.

Exactly.

(A.J.

laughs) Okay, so we're gonna scrape down again.

- [A.J.]

Okay.

- Lime zest and vanilla to our batter.

And if you guys could smell, the lime zest alone smells wonderful.

- Yes.

It's a great mix between the two smells, the lime and the vanilla.

(utensil tapping) - [Stephanie] And when we add the gin, woo hoo.

(mixer whirring) Perfect.

We're good.

So now, the gin that we are using today for our gin and tonic cupcakes comes from OTR StillHouse, which is local here in Cincinnati.

So there's a shout out.

Thank you very much for supplying us the gin today.

And we are using their Glacial Gin, which they make in-house.

So I want A.J.

to tell us a little bit about what this particular flavor profile is so we can look for it when we try our cupcakes.

- I like to smell what it smells like first.

- Okay.

- To get a little idea of what those botanicals are gonna be.

- Okay.

- And so the first thing everybody who tastes gin is gonna smell is that pine, and that's the juniper botanical, which is the major flavor in gin.

Mm-hm, and that'll be the first note that you get.

And then in the middle you'll start to get some of those additional botanicals.

And that's like the heart of the taste.

And so this one actually has more floral flavors to it.

- Okay.

- And just the hint of that citrus.

- So they describe this as clean.

So what is that?

- Yes.

- I mean, kind of clean description?

- Well, as you would probably agree, all good food starts with the best ingredients.

Same thing with gin.

You have to, if you want a good gin, you have to start with the best ingredients.

And so this one, they get it from glacial water.

So the water actually has come from these glaciers that have been sitting there for long periods of time, and then it kind of filters down into these aquifers.

And then it gives us this high quality water that it starts from.

And actually, you don't taste a lot of impurities when you're drinking this gin, which is- - Oh, very cool.

- It's a very, very, very good clean gin.

- All right.

Awesome.

All right.

- Mm-hm.

- So a little bit of citrus, that little bit of pine that you get in the very beginning, or the juniper, but I think it really will be the perfect gin for our cupcakes, so let's keep going.

- Agreed.

- All right, awesome.

Thank you.

- You're welcome.

- I'll leave that over there if you wanna like take a little bit more later.

Alright, so now to our cupcakes, we are just adding these all at once.

So we have milk (cup tapping) and we have four tablespoons of our gin.

- [A.J.]

Gin.

(cup tapping) - We have three tablespoons of tonic.

- Tonic.

- [Stephanie] And let's get this mixing but I want you to talk to us a little bit about tonic, too.

- I will, yes.

- And then we have lime juice.

- [A.J.]

These are like the key to a gin and tonic.

- [Stephanie] Yeah, okay, so let's mix it up.

Just get that all incorporated.

(mixer whirring) Nice.

Okay.

Now we are just gonna add half right now.

- Okay.

- Of our flour mixture and if you want, yep.

- [A.J,] I think this is about half.

- Awesome.

- There we go.

- Okay, we're just gonna get it so that it's mixed in nothing too over the top.

(mixer whirring) Looks like all our flour's gone.

- [A.J.]

All right, looks good.

Yeah, I think so.

- Okay.

All right.

Awesome, let's take it all off and then we're gonna hand mix the rest of it in.

- [A.J.]

Okay.

(bowl clacking) - Okay, I'll go ahead and hand mix this in, but talk to us a little bit about tonic and the different tonics.

- So tonic, I actually, I like gin, but I almost love tonic even more.

- [Stephanie] Ooh, all right.

Tell me why.

- It has a very political history behind it.

It's the first reputable source that we have to treat malaria, which is, you know?

- Oh, and that's the quinine, isn't it?

- Exactly.

Exactly, but the medical community was still skeptical of it, and they were using ancient techniques that the Greeks and Romans were using, such as bleeding people, you know, worried about the bad humors.

- Eugh.

- And so it took a long time for them to actually believe in tonic.

And so that whole story of how we, you know, started to accept tonic, it took a while, but once we accepted tonic, then the English soldiers and explorers would take some tonic as well as gin, which they all had a quotient of gin on the ships.

- Did they?

- Yeah.

And they also discovered around the same time frame, which is in the 1700s, that Lyme could prevent a diagnosis of Scurvy.

- Wow, yeah.

- Yeah.

So some of the other countries would call them Limeys, you know?

- Yeah, true yeah, wow.

- The British are always Limeys.

And so they actually started these techniques of mixing the quinine with some of the lemon juice.

And then also when they got to those countries, they would take some of the local cane sugar and mix it into their drinks.

And that's really how we got the gin and tonic.

- I love it.

- Yeah.

- That is awesome.

Well, I know lately I've been discovering different tonics and certainly, I mean, I have a favorite, which is an elderflower tonic, but there is now, I have found a Mediterranean tonic.

- Yes.

- Which definitely has citrus, more citrus notes in it.

So just so many things to learn.

- Yes.

- And who knew that the tonic is probably more medicinal than the gin?

- (laughs) Yes, exactly.

It's actually something that we started doing to actually prevent disease, and now we do it recreationally.

- Yes.

Well, hey.

(A.J.

laughs) I certainly will credit my gin and tonics to medicinal use.

So you guys, what we're gonna do now is we're just gonna scoop this batter into our already prepared cupcake liners.

We're gonna stick it into the oven, which we preheated to 350 degrees.

And we'll then show you how to glaze 'em and get 'em all decorated.

(upbeat music continues) So our cupcakes have baked for about 18 minutes or so, and now we need to glaze them.

So A.J., there's a toothpick.

Just start poking holes in them.

We put holes in so it allows the glaze to go down into the warm cupcake.

So we get all of that super delicious gin and tonic and sugar glaze throughout the cupcake.

As you glaze 'em, I am going to, we're gonna do a little production line here.

These are cool enough for us that it'll be fine to put our icing on.

So I'm just gonna go ahead and ice them up.

So now, here we go.

Here's our iced, and now we're gonna see how artistic A.J.

is, what we have here, this is gin-infused fudge that a friend of mine brought back from Scotland.

I just softened it up, rolled it out, and made it into little decorative flowers.

And then these are just little fondant leaves.

So what we're going to do is place a flower and a leaf on each cupcake.

And then A.J.

here's gonna put some finishing touches.

So just grab a flower.

- Okay.

- And we're, I'm placing it in the center.

- [A.J.]

Just push down?

- [Stephanie] Just push down gently, yep.

There you go, and then take a leaf 'cause I always think, I mean, this looks darling as it is, but when you add a little touch of leafy green, it just gives it a little extra kind of elegance to it, I think.

- [A.J.]

Wow, I like it.

You know, Scotland, they make some of the best gin.

Yes.

And so they've had a lot of practice and they've gotten the distilling techniques down.

So again, it's gonna be a clean tasting gin.

And then they've had years of experimenting with the different botanicals, and so they have this process down.

- So in your collection, how many Scottish gins do you have?

- I would say there's probably at least five.

And again, each one is gonna be different.

- [Stephanie] Sure, sure.

- [A.J.]

A different flavor.

I'm gonna try and recover this one there.

- Give me a flavor profile of one of 'em.

- So one actually is known for having about 20-something different botanicals, so.

- Oh my gosh.

- Yes, so it actually has the citrus notes.

It has the floral notes, but then if you, you know, you sip on it neatly, you may even be able to detect some other notes, such as like some herbal earthy notes as well.

- [Stephanie] Ooh.

- [A.J.]

Yeah.

- So it's almost like, I mean, as you're describing it, it makes me think of, you know, when someone's describing wine, right?

- Exactly.

- All of the different flavor profiles that you can get in wine.

- [A.J.]

And you have to actually, if you're trying to describe what you're tasting, you have to be good at the memory.

So it's basically what you think.

- Ah, so we're giving A.J.

the honor of the crowning jewel here, which if you guys have seen stuff that I've done before, I love putting these little, they're just glittery rice paper zhushies to anything I make.

Here are our finished cupcakes, and now we're going to give them a taste.

A.J., you ready?

- I'm ready.

- Ready to taste.

- I can't wait.

- [Stephanie] All right.

Here we go.

- Mm.

- I am definitely tasting like a citrusy lime.

A.J., can you taste the gin or can you taste the components of the gin?

- I'm tasting a lot of the citrus too.

And, hmm.

There's some floral notes in this one as well.

Yeah.

- Lovely.

The cake is really a great texture.

And then the syrup added to it just gives it a nice element of sweet and citrus with the creamy, buttery icing.

- [Both] Cheers.

- Thank you for joining.

- It was my pleasure.

- And baking with me, I love it.

It really helps the channel if you subscribe and if you've enjoyed this video, give me a like, and then A.J.?

- And also if you're interested in any gin and tonic cocktails, check out Gin-tellectuals and subscribe as well.

- Thanks again, we'll see you soon on another episode of "The Baking Journal."