It seemed only fitting to whip up a home-brew batch of margarita cupcakes to complement a bridal shower we held at one of the best Tex-Mex restaurants in Houston. El Tiempo on Washington Ave, in my opinion, serves the very best margaritas and chicken fajitas in the city – and y’all, this is a big city!

I was pretty confident that I could pull off the fun-flavored confections but just to make sure my culinary ego wasn’t clouding my judgment, I baked on Friday – any recipe mistakes could be scraped off the walls of my oven and rebaked by Saturday evening’s party. A search on Google yielded very few recipes and none that peaked my interest or taste buds – you know what that means: Let the experiments begin!

My husband makes a fabulous margarita (aka “The Unofficial State Drink of Texas”). You know the ol’ Lush-In-Training motto: You can’t drink just one Even armed with “the recipe,” I just can’t seem to get it quite right – oh well, that’s why I keep him around. His margarita recipe proved to be the winning combination as the cupcakes turned out far better than I could have hoped for – a fabulous cupcake to honor a fabulous friend! I decorated boxes from a local craft store in lime green and fuschia and used those to transport the individual cupcakes from the Tapas party at my house to the restaurant. I think I temporarily gave myself arthritis from using that flower-shaped scrapbooking punch thingy. No matter – the boxes looked good and apparently tequila cures arthritis.

Note – all ingredients should be at room temperature. Wilton makes candles shaped like margarita glasses garnished with a lime wedge – a festive garnish for the cupcakes.

*Update* Click here for the from-scratch version that does not use a box mix.

So here you go – a road-tasted Margarita Cupcake recipe:

Margarita Cupcakes
9 oz Margarita mix
3 oz tequila
3/4 oz Grand Marnier (or other orange liqueur)
White cake mix (No-pudding mix works best)
3 egg whites
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Tbsp lime zest
1 recipe Lime Buttercream Frosting (recipe follows)

Mix together the margarita mix, tequila, and Grand Marnier in a large glass or spouted bowl. You will use 1 1/4 cup of this in the cupcake mix. Put the remainder in the fridge to chill and then consume how you see fit.

In a stand mixer, add the cake mix, egg whites, vegetable oil, lime zest, and 1 1/4 cup of the margarita mixture. Mix on low for about 30 seconds and then increase to medium speed for two minutes (the batter will still be a bit lumpy).

Spoon the batter into a prepared muffin pan (fill the cups somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4 full) and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick registers “done” in the center cupcake. Remove the pan from the oven and cool 5 minutes. Remove the cupcakes and cool completely on a baking rack.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, make the frosting for the cupcakes.

Lime Buttercream Frosting
4 cups confectioners sugar
1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
1/8 tsp salt
3 Tbsp lime juice
green food color (optional)

Add the butter, confectioner’s sugar, salt, food coloring, and lime juice to the stand mixer and mix on low using the paddle attachment until combined. Turn the speed to med-high until the icing is fluffy. Add the icing to a pastry bag or use a spatula/knife to frost the cupcakes.

Note: Use additional lime juice or water to thin the frosting, if necessary.

Adapted from Wilton

32 Responses to “Margarita Cupcakes”