I’m not sure if I can really call these cupcakes “mulled,” because technically, there’s no actual mulling, assuming mulling is the whole process where wine and spices are simmered together, which I’m not actually sure about. Now that we’ve established what I don’t quite know about my own recipe, let’s talk about what I do know! These cupcakes have wine and spices, but no simmering, but that’s a good thing because it makes bit easier. They’ve also got orange and chocolate. Lots of flavors going on, and while you might initially think it sounds like a bit much, consider how well any two of the flavors here go together. Chocolate + orange = yum. Red wine + spices = delish. You can figure the rest out, but basically we’ve got four predominant flavors, all of which are awesome and work well together. It’s a flavor parallelogram. And yes, it all worked out beautifully and these little cupcakes were just as tasty in practice as they are in theory. They were so good. I did a dance. My husband shouted happy expletives that I won’t quote on a family friendly blog. “Exquisite!” I’m okay with quoting that part. Whatever you do, don’t give these to trick-or-treaters. I don’t think parents will appreciate the whole wine thing, even if it cooks off. Make these for yourself, or just save the recipe for the holidays.
