Cosmo cupcakes

I love alcohol, pink, and sugar, so these were a must! I found a blog (which unfortunately appears to be have been abandoned) that is exclusively cocktail-based cupcake recipes, and I really wanted to try the cosmos. I was invited to a crawfish boil this weekend and promised to bring baked goodies. I took the rice krispy treats and these, and they were a real hit!

I thought I'd go ahead and reprint the recipe here for your convenience.

Ingredients

For Cake:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs (room temperature)
3/4 cup unsalted butter
2 tablespoons of triple sec
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup dried cranberries

For Frosting:
3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
Pinch of salt
A stick of room temperature butter
2 tablespoons of sweetened lime juice (such as roses)
1 tablespoon of milk
A few drops of red food coloring
1 lime for garnish


Be especially careful not to open the oven during the first 20 minutes of baking as it will increase the chances of your cupcakes falling flat on their butts. This recipe has a little extra weight on top also due to the cranberries so just trust me on this one and keep your sticky fingers off the oven door for the first twenty minutes. The cupcakes when done should be golden brown and irresistible looking. (I know one of mine never made it to the frosting stage!)



For Cake:Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with cupcake liners. Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and give it a quick stir to combine. Place eggs and sugar in a bowl and beat on medium with an electric mixer until light and foamy. About 2 minutes. Melt butter (about 1min in microwave) and pour over eggs and sugar whilst beating. Add triple sec to eggs, sugar and butter mixture then turn mixer to low. Add half the dry ingredients to the mixer. Add milk and orange juice Add remaining dry ingredients. Continue mixing until remaining dry ingredients are combined (no more than a minute) being careful not to over mix the batter. Immediately divide batter equally among the 12 cupcake liners. I like to use an ice cream scoop to do this. Helps keep each cupcake uniform size. Sprinkle a little pinch of cranberries on top of each filled liner and put in hot oven immediately. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick stuck into the middle of the cupcakes comes out clean, with no crumbs. Place on a baking sheet to cool.
When cupcakes are completely cooled you can begin to make the frosting.Place 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar, salt and butter in a bowl and cream together using a stand or electric mixer on high until light and fluffy. Turn the mixer to low, add half of the remaining confectioners’ sugar, the lime juice and milk, then the remaining half of the sugar. Turn mixer to high and beat until fluffy and of piping consistency. Add food coloring until the color of the frosting looks similar to Barbie pink Frost cooled cupcakes in your favorite way Garnish with a slice of lime