Drunken Cupcakes

I'm still in the process of posting recipes and photos of my past baking adventures. Hopefully I'll catch up soon, because I think I'm at the point where I'm going to get more adventurous and start tweaking recipes and creating my own recipes and flavors! I'm excited in a way, but I'm running out of places to take my cupcakes since I'm now not the only baker on the block, so I'm concerned that more and more are going to end up in the trash :( Maybe I'll start making smaller batches... people will eventually start getting sick of cupcakes. Crazy, right?

So here are the next installment of cuppies: Cosmopolitan Cupakes!

Well, I guess they were more like cranberry lime cupcakes with cosmo glaze and lime buttercream frosting... but close enough. I got the idea from my lovely collection of liquor bottles that hardly ever get used. While baking The Opposite of Low-Fat Lemon Cupcakes, I saw the fabulous bottle of Patron Citronge sitting there above the sink and knew I had to use it to make some sort of cupcake. This was the first time I had a complex flavor idea and translated it into an actual baked good. I searched the interweb for recipes, and here are the ones I used for each component (I made some changes here and there and I'll make note of them):

I can't for the life of me figure out where I found this recipe, just know that it's not my own!

For the Cupcakes:

1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
2-1/2 tsp baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup frozen cranberry juice concentrate or cranberry punch concentrate, thawed
zest of 1 lime
1 cup dried cranberries, chopped
2 drops red food colouring (optional, if you would like a stronger reddish tint in the cake)

1. Allow all ingredients to come to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line muffin pans with cupcake papers.
2. With a mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add the eggs 1 at a time and beat until well combined.
3. Combine all dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
Combine buttermilk, thawed concentrate, zest, and cranberries in a separate bowl.
Add in 1 cup each of the dry and wet mixtures alternately, beating on low until the whole mixture is well combined.
4. Fill cups with batter two-thirds full. Bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes or until cupcakes
spring back in the middle when touched lightly. Cool for 10 minutes in pan.

 *I didn't use buttermilk for this recipe. Since I was intrigued with using sour cream instead of milk, I decided to use fat-free sour cream. The result was a nice, moist cupcake, but I think I'm going to start using a half and half mixture of  whole milk and whole sour cream because I think the fat also enhances the flavor in some recipes. I don't think the fat would have done much for these, because BOY were they sweet. Not disgustingly sweet, but they packed a punch with a bit of tartness from the cranberry juice concentrate. I also didn't use the food coloring because 1) I don't have food coloring, I have icing color and 2) I didn't see the point since I was glazing them... Here are the cakes pre-glaze:

I got the recipe for the glaze here

For glaze:
1/2 cup cosmopolitan

Heat the cosmopolitan over med heat until thickened and slightly reduced.

Brush with cranberry/vodka glaze when cupcakes are still slightly warm.
When cupcakes are completely cooled, frost with Cosmo Buttercream

* I used some of the cranberry juice concentrate instead of cranberry juice for this, and added vodka and the Patron Citronge. I cooked the cocktail FOREVER and it still didn't thinken much. So I just poked holes in the cakes with a toothpick and brushed it on while it was still kinda thin and it didn't turn out too bad. Here are the cupcakes post-glaze:

For the Frosting:
I actually kind of winged this one. I decided that using a cosmo buttercream would have been an overload, so I made a basic buttercream frosting and added some lime juice, lime zest, and icing color to achieve the extra lime effect. Came out pretty tasty, and I had  TON left over... that's my issue with frosting- I either have way too much, or not enough to pipe them :(
But anyways, I garnished them with lime zest. Once again, I had big plans for garnish but I couldn't find what I needed! I wanted to use drink umbrellas or cute swizzle sticks. I could have used cut plastic straws, but I didn't.

This is with the flourescent lights on in the kitchen, the color looks fantastic!

But this is more of the real color with the light on under the microwave. Still pretty, but I was going for more of the first color.

I really like this picture :o)