margarita cupcakes

I've wanted to make these for a really long time. I bought lime juice back in September specifically to make these. Thankfully that stuff stays fine for a while and the rest of the ingredients I have on hand normally. The original recipe is from a book called "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World". I'm not vegan, but some of their cupcakes are AMAZING. I tweak their recipes to suit my non-vegan pantry, but basically the credit goes there.


Ingredients:

1/3 cup lime juice

1 cup milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons tequila

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup sugar

1 1/3 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Process:

mix together the wet ingredients with the sugar (first six items on the ingredients list)

separately mix the remaining ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt)

then mix the two mixtures together

pour into muffin tins - will make 12

bake in oven at 350F for 20-25 minutes

Frosting:

1/4 cup butter (softened so it's easier to mix)

3 tablespoons lime juice

1 tablespoon tequila

2 cups confectioner's sugar

The cupcakes are light, moist, and delicious. And even though these are "margarita" cupcakes, you don't taste any alcohol in the cake itself - it's all in the frosting. So once the cupcakes were cool, I whipped some up. There's no real need to follow a recipe - just simple frosting with lime juice and tequila instead of water. My hand kind of tipped a bit in the process ... so my frosting turned out to be quite, um, strong. But yummy!

My roommate hasn't been home since I made these, so I'll have to make sure to tell her about the alcohol-content of the cupcakes. Then again, that would be quite the surprise, expecting a simple vanilla cupcake and getting a taste of a margarita instead. That girl better love me. Seriously, I must be in the running for best roommate ever.

Oh, and a belated linkage here to Bake at 350, which is having a little party. Next on my list, after I buy coconut and pineapple juice, are these pina colada cupcakes. Yum!