Mini Black Licorice Cupcakes for Halloween

In my last post, I asked you to guess which flavor of licorice I'd be using in my licorice cupcakes.  The answer is black licorice!  Black licorice is a love it or hate it flavor and I saw some strong opinions about it in the contest comments.  Even if you fall into the "hate it" category, I hope you'll consider giving these black licorice cupcakes a try.  Flavors taste different in different formats.  Some people enjoy bananas, but can't stand banana bread; others detest tomatoes and adore tomato sauce.  Likewise, several anti-licorice tasters raved about my licorice cupcakes.  

Before I developed the licorice cupcake recipe, I made homemade black licorice to see firsthand how to achieve the distinct flavor of black licorice.  (I didn't post about the candy itself because I wasn't able to get the texture quite right.  If I master it, I'll share it.)  The black licorice recipe was made using dark corn syrup,  molasses, and anise extract, so I used those same ingredients in my black licorice cupcakes.  It worked!  The cupcakes truly taste like a cupcake form of black licorice. 

To get the black licorice cupcake recipe, head over to Paula Deen's website.  I'm a regular guest contributor on her site and the black licorice cupcakes were my contribution for Halloween!

And the winner is...


The winner of the case of candy from Switzer's is Sam from Adventures of a Hopeless Foodie!  Congrats, Sam!