Boozy #2: Let's have margaritas!
June 16, 2014
It was a natural progression for me to go from Baileys cupcakes to margarita cupcakes. Tequila, after all, is my choice of poison for shots. And since no tequila less than Patron will do, I asked The Husband to buy a mini for these cupcakes since we're not going to do any drinking at home anyway - a decision I now regret. We should've gotten the regular sized one at least. Haha! The mini Patron was enough for 12 cupcakes.
You can taste the tequila in every bite. But the weird thing is, after one day of making them and storing them in an airtight container, the tequila flavor somehow vanished - very weird. So I suggest eating them as soon as you're done frosting, which should be no trouble at all. The cupcakes are very moist and buttery with a little tartness from the limes echoing throughout the cupcake. Like a ninja, the tequila here gives you a pretty hard kick but only after you're done eating the entire cupcake. I sprinkled Himalayan pink salt on the frosting so really, it's like a flavorfest in your mouth - moist, buttery, sour, sweet, salty, and then a kick!
I was inspired by the lovely big roses I got on my birthday so I piped some rosettes on top. They were supposed to be flowers but since I didn't have a proper flower nail then (I used a makeshift one - Starbucks bottle caps with binder clips taped to the inside hehe, sadly it didn't work), I settled for ruffles. Haha! I added little lime wedges for garnish too. I was satisfied with the overall look - a play of colors on a play of flavors. The Husband, The Housemate, and some friends who tried them gave me two thumbs up!
These can be made without the tequila for a "virgin" version - which I did for some birthday cupcakes I made a week after (blog post soon!). These are definitely more fun though.
Margarita Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the cupcakes
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsps baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- Zest and juice of 1½ limes
- 2 tbsps tequila
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
To brush the cupcakes
- 1 to 2 tbsps tequila
For the tequila-lime frosting
- 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 3/4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 2 tbsps tequila
- Pinch of coarse salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
- In an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the butter and sugar together until pale, light, and fluffy (about 5 minutes).
- Reduce the mixer speed to medium and add the eggs one at at time, mixing thoroughly after each addition.
- Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the lime zest, lime juice, vanilla extract and tequila. Mix until combined. (The mixture may start to look curdled at this point, but don't worry, it will all come back together, power on!)
- Reduce the mixer speed low. Add the dry ingredients in three batches, alternating with the buttermilk in two batches. Mix only until just incorporated, using a rubber spatula to give it one last mix by hand.
- Divide the batter between the muffin cups. Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until just slightly golden and a skewer shows only moist crumbs attached, rotating the pan at the halfway point.
- Allow cupcakes to cool for 5 to 10 minutes, and then remove to a cooling rack. Brush the tops of the cupcakes with the 1 to 2 tablespoons of tequila. Set the cupcakes aside to cool completely before frosting them.
- To make the frosting, whip the butter on medium-high speed of an electric mixer using the whisk attachment for 5 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium-low, and gradually add the powdered sugar, mixing and scraping the sides of the bowl until all is incorporated. Give it a mix on medium speed for about 30 seconds. Add the lime juice, tequila and salt mix on medium-high speed until incorporated and fluffy. If the frosting appears a bit too soft, add some additional sugar, one spoonful at a time until desired consistency is reached. Frost cupcakes and garnish, if desired, with lime zest, an additional sprinkling of salt and a lime wedge.
Note #1: If you would prefer to not use liquor in these cupcakes, you can absolutely omit it from both the cupcakes and the frosting with no problem. If you do omit it, I would add 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract to the frosting.
Note #2: I used a Wilton 1M tip to frost the cupcakes.
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