Birthday cupcakes: chai-spiced cupcake with honey buttercream and margarita cupcakes!

I had my first 'official' job last week for a friend's birthday party, so I should start with a big thank you to Laura!

Our friend Kathleen was celebrating her birthday, and I was initially going to make a cake but couldn't decide on a flavor. So I figured cupcakes were the way to go! Not only are cupcakes all the rage now, but they much easier to eat and are a great way to sample different flavors. After some research, I decided that a chai-spiced cupcake would be great for the fall season. I planned to top the cupcake with a honey buttercream to complement rather then overwhelm the chai spices.

I also wanted something fun and festive, so when I stumbled on a recipe for margarita cupcakes, I knew it would be perfect! One reviewer suggested a swiss meringue icing…I have never made swiss meringue icing, so I figured it was a perfect time to try.

I made a small batch of each cupcake flavor during the week, mainly to test out the recipe and make adjustments. Both flavors turned out pretty good, with the collapsed cupcakes (always a challenge at high altitude!). The honey buttercream was a bit thick, and the swiss meringue icing was a little buttery, so the icings were going to need some adjustments. I was off to a good start, but I'm glad I tested the recipes first!

The plan was to make the cupcakes the morning of the party, get the icing made, head to the pool for Masters, then come back and finish decorating in time for the party. I had a little bit of extra time on Thursday, so I pulled out some of my old cake decorating stuff to make some flowers for the cupcakes. After a little bit of trial and error, I finally made some flowers!

First batch that actually started looking like flowers

 Royal icing (basically just sugar and water that you use to make 'stiff' flowers) is a pain in the butt to work with…it hardens almost immediately (which I had forgotten), so it's essential to keep the bowls covered, or else the icing won't pipe well out of the bag. My plan was to make a variety of flowers, but after failed attempts at making daisies, I ended up just making lots of the same flower in a variety of colors! They still turned out pretty cute.

I got really good at making these! Need more practice for anything harder though...

 My hand and wrist got tired pretty quickly…I'm out of practice, and unless you get your royal icing to the perfect consistency for making flowers, it really takes a lot of work. So I made what I needed and ditched the rest of the icing. Next time I'll try the daisies again!

  

It was my Friday off, so as soon as Scott and I got back from our 6 AM kettlebell class, I made some pancakes and started the cupcake baking! I did the chai-spiced cupcakes first. They smelled delicious and turned out great. The trick is to not only use chai (made with milk) in the batter, but also to add cardamom, ginger, and other chai spices to really bring out that chai flavor. I ended up baking them at a slightly higher temperature than the recipe called for, but I think it worked well. Sometimes I find that leaving the oven at 350 makes the top of the cupcakes a little crusty, but the higher temperature cooked them faster, so they were moist from top to bottom.

They didn't dome up at all, but the flat tops are actually easier for decorating anyways. 

The margarita cupcakes were next. The first batch that I made earlier in the week had lime juice, lime zest, and tequila in the cupcake batter, but the tequila taste didn't seem to come through that well. So the second time around I skipped the tequila and made it just a lime cupcake. Once the cupcakes cooled a bit, I brushed the top of each one with a tequila/orange liquer mix. Each cupcake got at least 2 rounds of tequila, to make sure the tequila flavor was well-infused into each one. These were definitely not kid-friendly cupcakes!

These puffed up nicely! And no overflowing...

 The first batch of honey buttercream was a little thick and didn't spread that well, which might have been partly due to the honey. For the second batch, I whipped the honey and butter together until very smooth and fluffy, and then slowly added powdered sugar, being sure to let all of the powdered sugar get incorporated before adding more. I also put in just a splash of half and half, which usually helps thin the icing out a bit without making it too runny. The second batch turned out much better…light, fluffy, and lots of honey flavor!

I wanted the icing to look a little nicer than just spreading it on each cupcake with a knife or frosting spatula, so I decided to try a new trick that I recently read about. I cut the corner off of a Ziploc bag, filled it up with icing, and then started piping. I really liked the results…cute dollops of icing on each cupcake, plus quick and easy clean up!

So cute!

 Each cupcake also got a little flower, I didn't go through all that hard work for nothing!

I love the flowers on these, cute but somewhat elegant. 

The swiss meringue icing for the margarita cupcakes was going to take a little more work. First, the egg whites and sugar must be cooked in a bowl over a pot of steaming water until they reach 160 degrees. Then, you have to whip the egg whites on high for about 10 minutes, until stiff peaks form, and then you start adding butter. At the very end, you whip in some tequila and lime juice (at least for tequila-flavored icing!).

My first batch of meringue icing turned out very sad. The egg whites turned out well, but when I added the butter, it caused the icing to start to curdle, and then the lime and tequila didn't help! It seemed a bit fatty or buttery, leaving a weird film in your mouth after eating it. I was definitely glad that I tested this out first, which gave me time to fix my mistakes before Friday!

There were a few tricks that I learned the second time around: first of all, every single ingredient needs to be at room temperature. Well, the egg whites don't, since you cook them anyways, but the butter, lime juice, and tequila absolutely need to be at room temperature. Also, it turns out better when you 'cook' the egg whites and sugar in the same that you'll be whipping them in. The first time around, I cooked the egg whites and sugar in one bowl, and then transferred them to the stand mixer bowl. The temperature difference between the hot bowl and room temperature bowl can cause the meringue to curdle while whipping. Also, the butter was warmed to room temperature in the microwave, but was not completely at room temperature. And the lime juice was cold! So when I added the lime juice and tequila the first time, it curdled the icing almost instantly.

The second time around, I used the stand mixer bowl to cook the egg whites and sugar. I also got the butter out a day in advance, to make sure that it was at room temperature. I also warmed up the lime juice in the microwave to make sure it was room temperature, and of course the tequila was already at room temperature. The icing turned out SO much better. Very smooth and very light. I think it's my new favorite icing! It is like the whipped frosting that grocery stores put on their cakes, but better! Seriously, next time you make cupcakes, make this icing! It'll go well with any type of cupcake. Yum.

I wanted to decorate the margarita cupcakes a little differently, and Scott suggested little dollops. They turned out really cute! I also topped each cupcake with some pink kosher salt and lime zest. The salt really completed the margarita flavor profile, and the lime zest added that little bit of extra citrus to really bring it all together. Of course my little flowers made them look even prettier!

Lots of cupcakes!

Close-up. These turned out very festive, with the pink flowers, green zest, and pink salt

I would definitely make either of these cupcakes again. I think the chai cupcakes could have used a bit more cardamom to really bring out the chai flavor, but overall they were really tasty. And I think most people would agree, based on how quickly they got consumed!