Happy Birthday Cupcake Hero! Lime & Coconut Margarita Cupcakes
Last year, I somehow stumbled upon Laurie’s blog and saw the posting about Cupcake Hero. Of course I had to enter. The first theme was Lime. I made Vegan Margarita cupcakes that didn’t turn out so great. Well they tasted great, but didn’t look so good. They we’re somewhat gummy. I later learned that was from using lowfat soymilk.
Here we are one year later and CH has grown beyond anyone’s expectations! Be sure to check out the new website. I try to enter every month. I even won in July! It totally made my week 🙂
This month, to celebrate the first birthday of CH, the theme is Baker’s Choice. We have to choose two flavors from the past two months and use them both in the cupcake.
There is a place near us that has these amazing coconut & lime margaritas. They’re my absolute favorite. So I wanted to recreate this as a cupcake. AND, I’d have two themes: lime and alcohol. I realize this may not the most creative combination. So I wanted to get creative about how to make the cupcake.
I stumbled upon a recipe for lime meltaways and decided to combine that with the coconut cupcake and put margarita frosting on the top. I spent days contemplating how to make this cookie/cupcake combo… I started with a trial batch to see what worked best. I made 4 cupcakes. One had raw cookie batter on the bottom, one in the middle, one on top, and one with a baked cookie on the bottom (similar to the Oreo cupcakes).
So this is what my test cupcakes looked like when they came out of the oven. I had to taste each one of course to see how well the lime and coconut played together. I was pleasantly surprised that the baked cookie didn’t burn while the cupcake was baking over it. After taste testing my experimental cupcakes, I decided to bake the cookies, then put them under the raw cupcake batter. The cookies that were baked in the cupcakes didn’t bake through and the one on top just looked silly.
For the cookie recipe, see Lime Meltaways post. For the coconut cupcake recipe, check out when I made Pina Colada cupcakes. I went with a really sweet frosting to balance out the tartness of the fresh lime juice in the margarita that I brushed on top. I also needed a non-alcoholic frosting because my 13 year old sister was going to be at the party I was taking them to. I did brush the non-alcoholic ones with a little freshly squeezed lime juice.
Margarita2 parts tequila
2 parts freshly squeezed lime juice
1 part triple sec
Mix. Brush onto cooled cupcakes. Any remaining mixture can be poured over ice for your enjoyment 🙂
Lime Coconut Frosting1 stick of butter
powdered sugar
zest of 1/2 lime
1/4 cup coconut
1/4 tsp coconut extract
1/4 tsp freshly squeezed lime juice
couple drops of vanilla extract
Cream the butter. Add sugar to reach desired consistency. Add remaining ingredients and mix. Add more sugar if consistency is too runny.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
I love the idea of perfect party minicakes!! They look delish! Great job! That flour picture is so funny. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done that – flour on the counter, on my KA, in my hair, on my face!
Clara @ I♥food4thought
Yum! Love the raspberry/lemon combo, and the mini cakes are adorable 🙂
Well done – what an innovative variation. They look so cute!
I can totally relate to the slippery effect.
Your cake looks beautiful!
You did a lovely job on all your mini cakes.
Natalie @ Gluten A Go Go
Adorable! Your KA and mine would be best friends. ‘Chuck’ is always filthy. Poor guy. He gets cleaned up, just to be coated again. 😉
How cute! Making mini-cakes is a great idea. Next time I make this cake I will try that, I still have a HUGE cake in the fridge I need to eat :-/
Cheers!
Great idea on the mini cakes. They are really cute. Great job. To the next challenge we go.
beautifully done!!! love it!!!
I love the little cakes! Plus the raspberries! Yummy!
The mini cakes look really amazing!
The minicakes are wonderful! Now, you’ll need my address to send one…Libby 😉
Love the idea of the mini cakes, that’s so adorable!
Mini-cakes are definitely more work than one large cake! They’re so cute though.
What a cute idea! They look adorable!
I love desserts in miniature and your mini cakes look beautiful. I think I will most definitely be making mini cakes sometime in the near future – thank you for the wonderful idea!
~gail
I’m loving the mini versions! The cake looks fantastic. Mmmmm!
I made mini ones too. I hate to tell you but it is way easier to frost a whole cake than mini ones. 🙂
Looks great.
Beautiful!! You did a gorgeous job :O)
These individual cakes look pretty…well done!
Really cute idea to make individual cakes, I love that. Great job!
I adore your minicakes. V lovely.
j
Oh! the minicakes are just the best idea ever. I probably should have done that with my oh-so flat cakes. How great.
Mini cakes -what a great idea! I think I’m going to have to try that here pretty soon. Looks like a delicious lot of fun. Especially the part where you get to eat the scraps. I think this cake was some of the best I’ve had.
What cute little mini cakes! Aren’t things just better when they’re mini?
Great work!
I love the little cakes and the picture with the raspberry and lemon zest is so enticing!
Perfect!
xoxo
Gabi
Another messy baker here! And I love the mini cakes – I’m nice to see its as low-tech as cutting circles out of larger pieces rather than trying to bake a bunch of cakes in miniature pans.
Jen,
Your little cakes are gorgeous! I too love swiss buttercream … congratulations on a job well done!
wow, that takes some patience, putting all those cakes together! They are just the cutest though. ~ JMom
so petite and cute!