Margarita cupcakes.

Baking on my mind. . .As always. . It’s becoming an obsession. . HELP!!! 

So I just need an excuse to bake something. Friends coming over, friends leaving town, Friday night, Sunday morning, anything at all is an excuse good enough to bake. And thats how I made this super cute sounding, gorgeous looking and yummy cupcakes. Margarita cupcakes; you hear the name and you have to make them. I came across this recipe on http://www.browneyedbaker.com/ which by the way is an amazing blog and a must for all baking lovers. There were so many recipes here that I wanted to try and finally I settled for the margarita cupcakes. These cupcakes were moist, delicious, and had just a hint of the tequila.

I know its blue icing, that’s because I just wanted to use blue. Use any colour you like. Also to make it like an authentic margarita cupcake, the recipe suggests salt for the frosting, which I skipped , since I didn’t feel too confident about it.

So here’s the recipe from the brown eyed baker.

For the Cupcakes:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
Zest and juice of 1½ limes
2 tablespoons tequila
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk

To Brush the Cupcakes:
1 to 2 tablespoons tequila

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 160 C degrees . Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners; set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

3. Beat the butter and sugar together until pale, light, and fluffy (about 5 minutes with an electric beater).

4. Add the eggs one at at time, mixing thoroughly after each addition.

5. 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)

6.  Add the dry ingredients in three batches, alternating with the buttermilk in two batches. Mix only until just incorporated, using a rubber spatula.

7. Divide the batter between the muffin cups. Best way to put the batter into the liners is to use a ice cream scoop. Makes the job so much easier.

                                                           Scoop it up!!!!!

                                                       Time to rise and shine

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.

8. 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.

Time to get frosted........ 

Now the icing in the original recipe was a buttercream icing, but I preferred using a fresh cream icing and here’s how I made it.

For the Tequila-Lime Frosting:
1 cup fresh cream, at room temperature

Powdered sugar
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoons tequila

9. To make the frosting, whip the cream . Take care not to let it curdle, so make sure the cream is chilled when you beat it . Add the sugar, mix well and then add the lime juice, tequila until incorporated and fluffy. Frost cupcakes and garnish, if desired, with lime zest, an additional lime wedge.