Second Cupcake Class: Mexican Cupcakes

 Hola! Today was Mexican cupcake day and we took a recipe out of Jan Moon's Southern Living's Big Book of Cupcakes for Lime Frosting.  They were on an almond vanilla cupcake.  While it was meant to be a Jan Moon recipe as well, that recipe didn't turn out so well.

Photo of all of the cupcakes.

It was rather greasy and there was a problem with the photo I took of the recipe where 2 and 3/4 cups of flour looked like 2 and 1/4 cup of flour.  Not a good change.  But the recipe still called for a cup of shortening.  So, Linda found a similar recipe that was more slimming. It was very  tasty, we all agreed.

Our cupcake picks.  Little skulls.  Very cute!!

But we did stick with the Lime Frosting, as it was the main Mexican Cupcake ingredient.  It called for some special ingredients, which we could only find at Beans About Cooking, a great little cooking store in Belleair Bluffs, FL. They were the only store that had lime oil.  (They also had the vanilla paste and red velvet food coloring.  I highly recommend them!)

Photo of lime zest and limes.

We needed to zest some limes, get some fresh lime juice and cream some butter for our frosting.

Linda was in charge of zesting and getting fresh lime juice.

Photo of the green gel frosting color.

 Then it was time to add the green frosting color.  It says to add it a toothpick bit at a time.  Makes it a bit scary.

In the next photo you can just make out the toothpick I am holding and pressing against the frosting to get some of that green gel to come off on the white frosting.

We dyed it until we had a nice soft green color.  Then we stopped.

Little did we know that adding in the powdered sugar would change things.

We added in the powdered sugar.

 When we added in the powdered sugar, things when from light green to a bright green.  Weird.

Bright green frosting.

 Lesson. Dye at the end.

Kim and Lindsey filled the bags.

 Then we started frosting cupcakes.  We taught Kim the basic swirl.  She was a fast learner.

Kim prepares to frost some cupcakes.

Some of the frosted cupcakes.

Linda waiting patiently for a frosting bag.

Finished Mexican cupcakes. 

Finished Mexican cupcakes.

Final verdict: Frosting is a keeper.  Especially with the dried mango and sprinkle of cayenne.  It tastes like lime sherbet.  Very good.  The vanilla cupcake is great too!

Next week: Coffee Cupcakes!