Alcohol, essences or both?

Sabre0001

Was wandering around Tesco last night and spotted that they had a Rum essence/flavouring.

Recently I experimented with baking with prosecco (and making a concentrate), but the flavour didn't really come through - as I mention, was more like berries. I did see a recipe online that called for Prosecco extract.

I am considering making rum & raisin cupcakes at some point in the future. So, am I better off using actual rum, a rum essence, or a combination of both? I feel I should know this, but as a general rule of thumb are essences or real flavours better where possible (e.g. orange juice vs orange essence)?

Thanks!

dee_mc

When I make rum and raisin truffles I heat rum, then stir in raisins and leave them for an hour or so to soak up the flavour.
This gives a very strong flavour, which would be great in a cupcake mixture I imagine.
Rum essence would probably be a better option for flavouring a buttercream topping though, as I'd imagine actual rum would split the mixture?

Shenshen

When I was growing up, my best friend's parents had a bakery.
If they needed things to be rum-flavoured, they'd use something called Stroh Rum. This stuff was so intense you couldn't drink it (and believe me, when we were teenagers we did try), but the flavour it gave was unbelievably strong and lovely.
I did try making a rum and raisins cake here, soaking the raisins in rum well before and everything, but the flavour just evaporated in the oven. If I'm making it again I'd be using the artificial flavouring now.

L1011

It's possible to drink Stroh alright. It's just really inadvisable!

Alun

L1011 wrote: »

It's possible to drink Stroh alright. It's just really inadvisable!

Yeah, only really suitable for adding to Jagertee or hot chocolate and even then you need to be careful with quantities!!

L1011

Think it was coke I had it with. Bottle was left behind in a mates house and the off licence was closed.

the beer revolu

Alun wrote: »

Yeah, only really suitable for adding to Jagertee or hot chocolate and even then you need to be careful with quantities!!

It's great in hot chocolate!
Brings me back to the early ski/drinking holidays before they (mostly) just became ski holidays.

Stargazer7

I have used the malibu / white rum essence from Decobake when making a Tropical style white cake and for a flavoured buttercream.

Soaking the fruit in the booze is a nice way of getting good flavour into the cake.....or making a stock syrup and adding booze to brush the cake layers.

With chocolate truffles I just keep adding booze and tasting until I'm happy.....which invariably takes a lot of tasting :pac::pac::pac:

katekuchen

I've used rum instead of vanilla essence in baking plain cakes, just used more of it. It's a subtle flavour but a nice change.