never mind that dent in the cupcake on the left. It got smushed ;D
After the Car Bombs, I got a cupcake bug up my ass. But not just any ordinary kind of bug, an alcoholic bug. Er-go: Margarita Cupcakes. I am not wild about margaritas in general. Something about the tequila makes me violently ill but I found a shit-ton of recipes for them so I decided to give it a go.One recipe in particular that caught my eye is from the book, "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: 75 Dairy-Free Recipes for Cupcakes that Rule". I will definitely try that one next with all the left over tequila I have. That funny looking EVOO gnome had a good recipe too, but it contained too many ingredients. Not too many steps, just too much stuff. I settled on one I found on [bigcitycooking.blogspot.com]. I changed a couple of things and did not follow the frosting recipe. It called for cream cheese AND butter and I am already not a huge fan of cream cheese UNLESS it involves lox and bagels.
CUPCAKES
2 cups All Purpose flour
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
12 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup of Rose's West India Sweetened Lime Juice
5 egg whites, room temperature
Preheat oven to 350F .
In a medium bowl sift together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt.
In another bowl beat together butter and sugar until light and creamy. Beat in vanilla, milk and the lime juice. Reduce speed and mix in flour mixture until completely combined.
In a separate bowl, with clean dry beaters, whip egg whites on high until they form stiff peaks. Using a spatula fold egg whites into the batter until just combined.
Pour the batter into the cupcake pans and bake 20-22 minutes or until an item (knife, tooth pick)inserted comes out clean.
FROSTING
1 stick of butter
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon of lime juice
2 tablespoons of Tequila (okay 3)
Lemon zest
1 drop yellow food coloring (Rachael Ray says green, I say yeah, it should be green but I want yellow)
Sea Salt (most of the recipes call for sugar crystals or coarse sugar, but I am with Big City on this one, Coarse Salt is the way to go. The combination of sweet, sour and salty will astound you)
You can find any number of frosting recipes out there. Some are more complicated but if you want to keep it simple, the basic combination will always be butter and confectioner sugar. You beat those ingredients add the lime juice and tequila. Add the lemon zest and food coloring if you want. As a garnish I added the coarse salt BUT not on all of them. Some people may not be into trying the salt so I placed it on the side.
I really liked the cupcakes. They were light and fluffy and very flavorful. And although all the people that tried these cupcakes did not think so; I found the frosting a little off. Maybe it was the use of cheap tequila??? No se.
What I do know is that the booze cupcake flood gates are wide open. What's next? Rum & Coke? White Russian? Pina Colada? What say you fish tank?
