Cupcakes with a Friend

Margarita Cupcake Revisited

In January I was lucky enough to have a long overdue visit from my law school buddy Liong Lie. You may be thinking that I made my friend endure some cupcake baking during her visit, but this was actually an activity that she requested🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁!

Liong Lie decided on the Tequila Soaked Margarita Cupcake we modified to make family friendly. We used the same basic components of the Tequila Soaked Margarita Cupcake recipe: 1. Golden Cupcakes, 2. Fresh Lime Curd and 3. Tequila Lime Frosting with a few tweaks to omit soaking the baked cupcake with tequila, omit tequila from the frosting yet maintain the margarita vibe.

So the goal with this creation was to capture the flavor of a lime margarita without the alcohol content. I used my standby Golden Cupcake recipe but added two teaspoons of good tequila into the cake batter. Adding the tequila to the cake batter will provide flavor without most of the alcohol content. A small amount of alcohol will remain despite the common misconception that it all burns off during the baking process, however, the amount should be comparable to regular vanilla extract.

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Golden Cupcakes

Versatile yellow butter cake.

Servings: 30

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature or softened
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups sour cream

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• Beat together butter and sugar in large mixing bowl fitted with a paddle attachment until light and fluffy.
• Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in vanilla.
• Add half the flour mixture and mix on low speed until just blended, then add sour cream, mixing until just combined. Add remaining flour mixture and mix at low speed until batter is smooth.
• Fill paper baking cups about 2/3 full and bake 15-17 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Take care to not overbake.
• Cook completely before frosting.

Make the lime curd ahead of time so it can cool completely before use. This recipe is a close to foolproof as you can get, no lumps, no cooked egg pieces and you can make it with lemon too. This stuff is totally addictive.

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Fresh Lime Curd

Creamy, thick and tangy fresh lime curd.

Servings: 2 cups

Equipment

• Use a non-reactive saucepansuch as stainless steel or enamel. Don't us a reactive saucepan like aluminum or cast iron or your curd might change color or taste funny.

Ingredients

• 5 large egg yolks
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
• 4 teaspoons lime zest

Instructions

• Use a 2 or 3 quart non-reactive saucepan.
• Place the egg yolks, whole eggs and sugar in the saucepan and whisk until it is well blended. Whisk in the lime juice and salt.
• Cook the mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture is thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.
• Remove from heat and whisk in the butter.
• Pour/press lime curd through a metal strainer into bowl.
• Stir lime zest gently into the curd.
• Cover the surface of the curd with plastic wrap onto the surface of the curd. Place the curd in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Notes

You can store this curd in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

I love this whipped buttercream recipe. The resulting frosting is very light and fluffy and because of all that air, not too sweet. For this version of my Margarita Cupcake, I omitted the tequila in the frosting and added 1/2 teaspoon more lime extract…sooooooo good!

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Tequila Lime Frosting

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted bnutter, softened to room temperature
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 tablespoons tequila
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons lime extract
• 2-3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Instructions

• In a large mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the butter at high speed until completely smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes.
• Add the confectioners' sugar gradually at low speed, then increase to high speed once blended. Add whipping cream and whisk at high speed until fluffy. Add tequila, vanilla and lime falvoring and whisk to incorporate.

Notes

You can substitute 1 tablespoon of lime oil for the lime extract but don’t use lime juice because the flavor is not strong enough.

Before frosting these little cakes, make sure to scoop out and fill each one with a couple tablespoons of Fresh Lime Curd. We used the common Wilton D2 tip and piped the frosting on starting from the outside (that way if you have a little mound of lime curd it will get covered).

We had a wonderful time making these festive Margarita Cupcakes cupcakes. They are easily decorated with a small slice of fresh lime and a cocktail umbrella.

Liong Lie is one of those “don’t like too much or any frosting ” kind of people.🙄 Thank you for doing one of my favorite activities with me. Baking cupcakes with a friend is great fun!