Rum Muffins with a Yuzu Rum Beverage

The second batch was much sloppier as I had been steadily drinking...

...but they turned out just fine

While purchasing wedding gifts from Williams-Sonoma I came across Yuzu Juice. I kept reading it about how it was the new cool thing and I kind of turned my nose up at it.  I'm not one for trendy things - okay maybe I secretly love them but trends are just that - trends. They don't last forever for a reason. They don't stand that test of time. But really. Yuzu. Isn't that just so much fun to say? I couldn't help myself, I had to get it. And so it sat in my fridge for a few weeks - waiting to be exploited. And so when I purchased a handle of Sailor Jerry's (The awesomest Rum ever) I combined it with Yuzu on the rocks. Seriously, it tasted like vanilla. It was amazing. Come to think of it I should have added Yuzu to the cupcakes.
Onto the muffins! This recipe is pretty famed at work. I brought them to a St. Patrick's Day party - it took less than 10 minutes for a dozen people to eat 48 muffins. Casey was pretty stoked about them and there is already a request to make these again. Of course this will require another handle - since we have drunk most of it. Alas I highly highly recommend making these guys. It's actually a recipe made for a bundt pan and making them in a bundt pan makes it way easier to let the sauce soak in but muffins are so much more fun to share!

Rum Muffins

18 oz. yellow cake mix
3 1/2 oz. box vanilla instant pudding
4 eggs
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. rum
1/2 c. canola oil

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Roast chopped walnuts until fragrant and darker in color. Combine first 6 ingredients, pour into cupcake pan and top with chopped walnuts.

Sauce

1/4 c. butter
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. water

Boil 5 minutes, remove from heat and add rum. Pour over muffins while they are still warm so the sauce soaks in. Oh, and the sauce here is key, DO NOT make these muffins without it. Seriously. The muffins, as mentioned above are more difficult to soak than a one-pan cake. With the mini muffins I took them out of their pans (which I had to anyway since I needed the pan to make more muffins) while they were still hot (ouch) put them in a glass 9x5 dish and poured the sauce over them. Whatever landed on the bottom got soaked up real nice. The big muffins are easier - I could pour the sauce over them and it would sink to the bottom.