It’s Wednesday, what better time to talk about booze, right? Uhh.. Hmmm, I’m not sure that’s exactly true, but hey, it’ll work! Speaking of booze, part of our focus on health dealio was to cut back on drinking a bit. We definitely don’t drink all the time, but there’s always room for improvement! First, we considering not drinking at all during the month of January to really kick start the year. All was going well and dandy until the first Friday night.

You see, every Friday night Alex and I go out to a Happy Hour near our house. We have a drink or two and grab some food, we chat with our bartenders, and we make new friends at the bar. It’s our thing. We don’t go crazy and drink all night or spend a ridiculous amount of money. We just hang and decompress from the week. In fact, most evenings we’re home by 7:30 and already in our PJs. So on this particular Friday, we were contemplating what we should do instead… should we go to the movies? Just hang out at home? We searched our minds for answers when we both realized that we really wanted to do our thing and that we had been looking forward to it all week. We agreed that instead of putting a restriction on not drinking for the whole month, we decided we just wouldn’t have a glass of wine after work and drink only on Friday and Saturday nights.

here we are at the Budweiser factory in NH.

So far, so good. We don’t have to give up something we enjoy or quality time that we both anticipate all week long. But, we are still being a little more mindful of it and making good choices.

here we are with Mr. Jack Daniels himself in Tennessee.

These babies are probably not good choices, but I just have to share them with you. My mom’s friend, Becky, would bring them to all of their girls’ nights and my mom would rave on and on about them. I never understood why until I was there one night and got to try them! They are out of this world! I’ve made them twice since then for parties – once for Alex’s 30^th birthday and just this past New Year’s Eve. They’re always a big hit!

I think the recipe she originally used was from here, although I’ve listed the changes that I’ve made below.

Also – you can find a ton of recipes online that make the cupcakes completely from scratch. This one uses a white cake mix as the base. It turns out really, really well using the mix that I haven’t even bothered to try it from scratch. If you try both and the from scratch recipe is waaaay better, let me know and I’ll give ‘em a whirl.

Margarita Cupcakes

Cupcake Ingredients
9 ounces Margarita Mixer
3 ounces tequila
3/4 ounce Grand Marnier
1 (regular size) box white cake mix
3 large egg whites
2 Tablespoons canola oil
1 Tablespoon lime zest

Icing Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
5 to 6 cups powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons lime juice, freshly squeezed
1/8 teaspoon salt
Tequila and Grand Marnier to taste
1 teaspoon lime zest
green food coloring (optional)
small lime slices for garnish (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Combine margarita mix, tequila and Grand Marnier in a small bowl. The original recipe suggests using only 1 ¼ cup of this mix for the recipe, however, I’ve used the entire amount and it turned out great!
3. Blend cake mix, egg whites, vegetable oil, lime zest and the liquid mix. Blend on low until ingredients are incorporated and then increase speed to medium for two minutes. Batter should be slightly lumpy.
4. Pour batter into cupcake liners (about 3/4 full). Bake for 20-25 min, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cupcakes cool for about 10 minutes in the pans. Remove them to a rack to cool completely.
5. To prepare icing beat butter until light and fluffy. Add 5-6 cups of powdered sugar, salt, lime juice, and lime zest. Mix until thick and creamy. I’ve found that these ingredients alone make the icing way too thick. I always add tequila and Grand Marnier to my icing mix to thin it out (or just margarita mix if I’m making non-alcoholic ones for kids). Mix in a small amount of green food coloring or if you desire (I’ve made them with and without this step). Ice cupcakes once they are completely cool. Use small lime slices as garnish.

Enjoy!

Have you ever tried margarita cupcakes before? Or some other kind of alcoholic cupcake? I’ve heard of Bluemoon cupcakes, but I’ve never tried them. What’s your absolute favorite kind of cake/cupcake??