Happy Cinco de Mayo, y’all!!! I am so excited to share this adorable cupcake recipe with you! I came up with this recipe after seeing these cute little margarita cupcakes on Pinterest (of course, lol) and decided that they would be the perfect treat for the little Cinco de Mayo play date that baby P and I were invited to attend. I love all holidays and especially fun holidays that don’t involve presents, just lots of food and drinking (although the drinking has come to a temporary halt on account of my squishy baby, lol), so naturally Cinco de Mayo is one of my faves. While I would love to enjoy a nice margarita today, I’m pretty sure any amount of tequila would probably kill me at this point, given that I haven’t had any hard liquor in over a year, so I figured a margarita cupcake would have to do the trick this year. Since I rarely bake anything from scratch, my goal is always to jazz up a box of cake mix enough to keep anyone from caring that I didn’t make the actual cake myself, and it always works :)! Point being, you can keep your recipes super simple and “semi-homemade” and still look like a rockstar baker or cook. Here is how I whipped up my margarita cupcakes by adding just a few simple ingredients to ordinary Betty Crocker cake mix (which was buy one get one free at Food Lion this week, woo-hoo!). Hope you can enjoy these at your next fiesta!

MARGARITA CUPCAKES WITH TEQUILA LIME FROSTING

(Makes 24 cupcakes)

FOR CUPCAKES:

INGREDIENTS

Ignore the yellow food coloring, I don’t know why that’s there – sometimes my brain doesn’t work lol

• 1 box cake mix (golden vanilla, white or yellow will do – I used golden vanilla)
• Zest of 1 lime
• 2 1/2 Tbsp. Tequila Mixer (or 2 Tbsp. lime juice and 1 Tbsp. orange juice)
• Green food coloring
• 2 Limes (for garnish)
• Decorative Straws or cocktail umbrellas (for garnish)

DIRECTIONS

1. Prepare your cake mix according to package directions, then add in your tequila mix or lime juice and orange juice, and lime zest. Mix until combined.
2. Add in 1-2 drops of green food coloring and stir to combine. This is optional, I just wanted to make mine look margarita-y lol.
3.  Bake your cupcakes according to package directions and allow to cool before frosting.
4. Meanwhile prepare your garnish by slicing limes into thin rounds, then slicing the rounds into little half moons with a slice down the middle so they will be able to stand atop the cupcake once frosted (see pic). Cut your straws so they are about 3 inches each, I only used about 4 whole straws total (I purchased my super cute straws at Target in the party section).
5. Once cupcakes are cooled frost using prepared frosting (recipe below). I piped mine out of a plastic ziplock bag with the corner cut off and used a large star tip icing tip. Then apply your garnish. Enjoy!

FOR FROSTING:

INGREDIENTS

• 1 container vanilla icing (I used cream cheese flavored icing because I had it on hand, but any white icing will do)
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1/2 tablespoon tequila (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine frosting, lime juice and tequila. NOTE: I did not use tequila this time because I didn’t realize that liquor stores down here aren’t open on Sundays, lol. They were still delicious!
2. Spoon frosting into a piping bag (or plastic ziplock bag) fitted with a decorative tip and pipe onto cupcakes. I allowed my frosting to sit in the fridge for a few minutes after I mixed it to allow it to become a little less fluid.