Saturday's Sweets: Mandarin Upside Down Cupcakes

Today I bring you a recipe that was a success on its first debut in our home. I got the idea from this post on the pineapple version of these cupcakes. The mandarin version is absolutely delicious. These little morsels are perfectly moist and sweet. The flavors of an upside down cake seem so delightful when they are portioned into cupcakes.

Mandarin Upside Down Cupcakes

-preheat oven to 350 degrees-

Ingredients:

Syrup

1 can of mandarin oranges

a handful of maraschino cherries

1/4 c. butter

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 teaspoon whiskey

Batter

1 1/3 c. flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 c. butter, softened

1 c. sugar

2 eggs

1 tablespoon whiskey

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 c. mandarin juice

In a saucepan over medium heat, stir together the ingredients for the syrup. Once it starts to bubble, let it thicken for a few minutes.

Then, pour the syrup into a buttered cupcake pan. Top with mandarin oranges and cherry halves.

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Then, add the baking powder, salt, cinnamon and half of the flour. After you add these dry ingredients, add the eggs, whiskey and the juice from the mandarin can. Finally, stir in the rest of the flour. Go ahead, taste the batter. The cinnamon makes such a lovely difference in this batter. At this point, I was eager to try the cupcakes already!

Spoon the batter into the cupcakes. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center of one comes out clean. I set a cookie sheet on the top of them once they came out so that they had a flat bottom. 

After the cupcakes cool for a few minutes, flip them upside down onto a cookie sheet.

Enjoy!