Adult's Only- Cosmopolitan Cupcakes

I am having such a birthday filled week!! I spose that is what happens when you celebrate 3 people's birthday's twice in the same week (6 birthday things, aargh!!).  Last Friday we had party for Hungry Male's Dad, Grandma, Cousin and Uncle who are all born in August. I made my specialty Malted Milkshake Cupcakes and an amazing white chocolate pie!! The next night (Saturday) I then had a cocktail party for his cousin (who I want to give a shout out to as she reads my blog!!). Last night (Wednesday) was my Dad's and his Dad and Grandma's birthday (yes we have 3 family birthdays on the same day) so we went to his family's house for tea and tonight we are going to mine and then finally on Saturday we are celebrating my Dad's birthday properly with all the family.

Did you follow all that?

I will note that my sister has themed the food for Dad's birthday as Dr. Who (gee thanks sis), so I am going to attempt to make some Dalek themed cupcakes. For those of you who don't know, this is a Dalek

There are some Dalek cake fails on Cake Wrecks and I'm pretty sure mine may end up worthy of this list.

These beautiful cupcakes were made in honour of Saturday night's cocktail party. I knew that cosmopolitans were going to be served, so I thought that I would attempt to turn that cocktail into a cupcake. A Cosmopoiltan is essentially a cocktail containing Vodka, lime and cranberry juice. So how did I turn them into a cupcake? How about a vodka and lime flavoured cupcake with cranberry icing.

These cupcakes aren't Gluten-free and they certainly aren't what I would consider to be 'real food'. You can easily make them gluten free by substituting flours but I beg you not to try to make them sugar free or whole-grain!! Just enjoy them as a white, fluffy and sugary occasional treat. Oh and did I mention that they are somewhat boozy, which just adds to the occasional-ness (yes I made that word up) of them.

Left: Waiting to come out of the oven, Right: Cooling down before icing. 

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup caster sugar

4 eggs

1/2 cup vodka (I used Absolut BerryAcai)

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups plain flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Zest 1 lime

1 Tbsp lime juice

200g butter (very soft)
4 Tbsp cranberry sauce (I used Watties)
1 Tbsp lime juice
2-3 cups icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Either in a mixer or using a hand-held beater, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg. Add the vodka and vanilla and beat to combine.

In a large bowl, sift the flour baking powder and salt. Gradually add to the wet mixture, beating until everything is well combined. Add the lime zest and juice and give it another quick beat.

Line 12 muffin tins or 24 mini muffin tins with liners. 2/3 fill each liner with mixture. Bake for 15-20 minutes for bigger cupcakes or 10-15 minutes for smaller cupcakes until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then remove from the tin and leave to cool completely.

To make the icing, beat together the soft butter, cranberry sauce and lime juice until light and fluffy. Gradually add the icing sugar, beating continuously until a thick icing has formed. The icing needs to be wet enough to be piped, however should hold a peak if you lift the beaters out.

Spoon into an icing bag fitted with a star shaped nozzle and pipe onto each cupcake using a spiral movement (YouTube icing techniques if you are not sure). Decorate with a straw or cocktail umbrella if you really want to make them look like a cocktail.