Recipe – Margarita Cupcakes

I’ve seen a ton of recipes for margarita cupcakes this summer on many of the blogs I frequently visit.  However most of the recipes I found were making the cupcakes from scratch and since I was planning on making these for a co-worker’s birthday, I wanted something that could use a cake box mix.  I always use the cake box mix and diet soda recipe when making things for work because it uses less ingredients (I usually need to stay under $30 when making cakes/cupcakes for work since I get compensated for whatever I spend on ingredients).

 

While the actual cupcakes don’t taste exactly like a margarita, they are full of lime flavor and are very light which is perfect for a summer dessert.  The frosting is a buttercream with lots of lime juice and zest added in and a hint of tequila.  I think next time I would actually add in even more tequila to both the cupcakes and buttercream to amp up the flavor a bit :)

Easy Margarita Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• Box of white cake mix
• 2 egg whites
• can of diet Sprite or 7-up (you will only need about 10 oz, though)
• 1 tablespoon of lime juice
• 1 tablespoon of lime zest
• 1 tablespoon of tequila

Let’s get baking!

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare muffin tins with cupcake liners.
• In a large mixing bowl, mix cake mix, egg whites, and 10 ounces of diet soda together for about 2 minutes on medium speed. 
• Add in lime juice, zest and tequila and mix well until completely blended with cake mix.
• Pour mixture evenly into cupcake liners, filling about 2/3 up.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Let cool for at least 30 minutes before frosting.

I feel like everyone has a different recipe for buttercream – some use more powdered sugar while other use more butter, so just make whatever buttercream you are most comfortable with.  To add the tequila flavor, mix the buttercream with 2 tablespoons of tequila, 1 tablespoon lime juice and 1 tablespoon of lime zest.  I added even a little more lime zest after so you can see the little green flakes once you are decorating the cupcakes :)  After frosting, use lime slices for garnish.