To celebrate the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie, I decided to create a Captain Jack Sparrow cupcake. It’s dark, mysterious, and of course packed with Caribbean rum. Captain Jack wouldn’t want it any other way! Dark chocolate cupcake are topped with caramel-rum frosting, caramel-rum drizzle, and pirate flags.

“I had no idea when you and your brother were small that I was raising pirates.”

My mom said that to me just the other day. I’m not sure if she was referring to me and my brother’s affinity for the ocean, rum, swearing, or our general swashbuckling demeanor but either way, it made me laugh!  

I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that I have a sincere love of all things pirates and the Caribbean (peruse the Caribbean section of The Rose Table here) so it’s not a stretch to imagine that I’ve been counting down the days to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

My whole family was ecstatic when we heard they were making a movie based on the ride starring my favorite actor, Johnny Depp. While five year-old me was totally terrified by the skull’s haunting Dead Men Tell No Taaaaaales that I refused to look up for the rest of the ride, it later became my favorite ride at Disneyland.

I saw the original Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl a whopping six times in theaters and it remains my favorite movie to this day, which is why I hosted a whole Pirates of the Caribbean party.

I used Caribbean rum in this recipe: Captain Morgan. Feel free to use your favorite golden or spiced rum in this recipe. The caramel-rum frosting is easily doubled but let me tell you, a little bit goes a long way as caramel is very sweet!

Note: you will have extra caramel-rum sauce but is that a bad thing? Use the leftover sauce on ice cream. Yum!

Watch Pirates and bake these cupcakes ASAP because not all treasure is silver and gold, mate. Sometimes it’s chocolate!

“Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me!”

Captain Jack Sparrow Cupcakes

Makes 24

For the cupcakes
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup dark cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup 1% milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
Rum caramel sauce, recipe follows
Caramel-Rum Frosting, recipe follows

*Please note: you need a little more frosting if you’re piping on any cupcake rather than spreading. I usually do 1.5 times this amount: 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp caramel-rum sauce, 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 12 Tbsp butter, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla, and 3 Tbsp milk.

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two muffin cup pans with cupcake liners and spray each with non-stick spray.
2. Combine sugar, flour, dark cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large mixing bowl. Add eggs one at a time and mix until incorporated. Add milk, oil and vanilla all at once and beat on medium speed of mixer about two minutes. Stir in the boiling water. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full.
3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.
4. Frost with caramel-rum frosting and drizzle with caramel-rum sauce. Garnish with a pirate flag and gold sprinkles.

Rum Caramel Sauce

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
2 Tbsp heavy cream
1/2 cup good quality golden or spiced rum

1. Melt 1 stick of butter in a sauce pan over medium heat.
2. Add dark brown sugar and heavy cream. Cook until sugar has dissolved.
3. Remove pan from heat and add 1/2 cup of good dark rum. Now is not the time to use cheap rum because the flavor is important to the quality of the cake. I used Captain Morgan.
4. Carefully put the pan back on the heat. The rum will ignite. If it doesn’t, you can light it manually with a lighter. The flame should burn out in a minute or two. Continue cooking for one or two more minutes after the flame has died down to thicken the sauce.
5. Pour into a heat-proof bowl and allow to cool.

Caramel-Rum Frosting

1/4 cup caramel-rum sauce, cooled
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 Tbsp milk

1. Cream together powdered sugar and softened butter with an electric mixer.
2. Slowly incorporate vanilla, rum-caramel sauce, and milk. Beat until smooth.
3. Add additional milk or powdered sugar if needed for desired consistency.