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My Cooking Love Affair: Margaritaville Cupcakes

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at IU chapter.

Ingredients: 

 
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
For the Tequila-Lime Frosting:

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

2¾ cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon lime juice

2 tablespoons tequila

Pinch of coarse salt
Directions: 
1. 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.
3. In an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the butter and sugar together until pale, light, and fluffy (about 5 minutes).
4. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and 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, power on!)
6. 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.
7. 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.
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.
9. 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.

for more amazing recipies visit www.mycookingloveaffair.com

Courtney Kabbes is a junior at Indiana University. She is majoring in journalism with a concentration in apparel merchandising. When she's not busy updating Her Campus IU and promoting their site, she works as the Vice President of Social Media for the Retail Studies Organization and Ed2010 at Indiana. Some of her favorite things include shopping, mint chocolate chip ice cream, New York City, Bikram yoga, and spending time with her two favorite people: her mother and sister. Did we forget to mention her slight obsession with Pinterest? www.pinterest.com/ckabbes