After our absolute inundation with snow earlier this week, I decided some light, spring-y cupcakes were in order, hopefully to coax the last of winter along and to bring in the new season. And what's more spring-y than lime and mint? Not much, I say. Especially when you throw some rum in the mix, just for good measure.
While I'm pretty sure everyone knows what a Mojito is, I'm going to offer a quick overview of the cocktail. It's a Cuban drink and it's pretty old; while Wikipedia isn't the best source, it does say that it dates back to the sixteenth century and can alternately be called "El Draque," after Sir Francis Drake. A traditional Mojito has just three flavor components: lime, mint, and rum mixed with a little bit of sugar syrup and soda water. It's akin to a mint julep, but made with rum and has a more Caribbean flavor. But summery, no? It should knock the remaining icicles off of my roof at any rate.
But enough history (my beloved, beloved history). Onto the recipe:
Mojito Cupcakes
Adapted from Coconut and Lime's Kentucky Derby Cupcakes
This recipe requires some preparation before hand, but it's all fun stuff, so fear not.
Tear your mint leaves up and place in the bottom of a glass. Pour your milk over and use the back of a spoon (or a muddler, if you have it) to bruise the mint leaves. It won't look pretty, but it will smell awesome. Let sit for at least 15 minutes so the mint and milk can steep together.
Meanwhile, grate the zest off of your thoroughly washed limes (being careful not to grate your knuckles
like I did). I have some sort of small grating contraption I got at Target or somesuch place for relatively cheap. It does offer a nice trap at the back to catch your grated deliciousness, but it does kind of stick to the entire grater. A microplane would be even better. Just make sure not to get any pith in your cupcakes because that would just be sour and icky. Once you've grated all of the zest off of your limes, roll your limes on a hard surface. I kind of wail on mine when I juice by hand because if not, they don't juice particularly well in my weak hands. Cut them open and squeeze the juice into a container. I tossed my zest in there too for good measure. It's all going to the same place. Your hands will smell wonderful for the rest of the day, too.
Next, do your average cupcake thing. Sift together your dry ingredients and set aside. Cream together your butter and sugar. Add your eggs and make sure it's all well incorporated.
Once your butter, sugar, and egg mixture is together, strain the mint out of your milk mixture and get rid of the leaves (I actually used dried mint because I wasn't able to get fresh at the store; it left little bits of leaf in there but it's no big deal). Add your milk mix in and then 1/2 of the dry ingredients. Next, add your rum, and then the last half of your flour. Add a tablespoon or two of lime juice to your mix; begin at 1 T for 3 cupcakes, 2 T for 6 cupcakes and so on. Save some for your frosting! Mix until well combined.
Pour into lined cupcake wells. If you're compulsive like me, you can weigh them out; I've found that for this batter, 1 3/4 oz does the job nicely: it gives a nice, round cupcake that doesn't pour over the sides and isn't too far down in the cup. Perfect.
Bake these beauties at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes, checking after 15 minutes. Check with a toothpick for doneness. These are pretty springy, so be aware of that as well.
While your cupcakes are in the oven, prepare your frosting.
Lime-Rum Frosting
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 1/2-2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp rum
2 tsp lime juice-lime zest mix
Cream your butter until fluffy. Gradually add in your powdered sugar until smooth and aerated. Add rum and lime to smooth it out. I prefer more of a lime flavor to this, but you may wish to try more rum, as that can't hurt either. You may wish to add a few drops of green food coloring to the mix to let your tasters know they're dealing with something minty, but I preferred to leave the color out. You can see little speckles of green lime zest in there, and I preferred that to a false green.
For some reason, this was an inordinately thick frosting. I'm not sure if it was a peculiarity of the weather or the mix or whatever else, but it was difficult to pipe. I had intended to use a little star tip to make things a bit fancy, but I ended up cutting the tip off of my piping bag and just making a pretty swirl.
If I had thought ahead, I would have saved a lime and candied it in hot sugar syrup for decoration. But alas, all I have is lovely cupcakes (and my lovely cupcake apron! Thanks Xanadu in Blacksburg!)
While I'm pretty sure everyone knows what a Mojito is, I'm going to offer a quick overview of the cocktail. It's a Cuban drink and it's pretty old; while Wikipedia isn't the best source, it does say that it dates back to the sixteenth century and can alternately be called "El Draque," after Sir Francis Drake. A traditional Mojito has just three flavor components: lime, mint, and rum mixed with a little bit of sugar syrup and soda water. It's akin to a mint julep, but made with rum and has a more Caribbean flavor. But summery, no? It should knock the remaining icicles off of my roof at any rate.
But enough history (my beloved, beloved history). Onto the recipe:
Mojito Cupcakes
Adapted from Coconut and Lime's Kentucky Derby Cupcakes
| Ingredient | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 |
| Flour | 1/4 cup | 1/2 cup | 3/4 cup | 1 cup |
| Sugar | 1/4 cup | 1/2 cup | 3/4 cup | 1 cup |
| Butter, Room Temp | 1.5 T | 3 T | 5 T | 6 T |
| Milk | 1/8 cup | 1/4 cup | 1/3 cup | 1/2 cup |
| Light rum | 1/8 cup | 1/4 cup | 1/3 cup | 1/2 cup |
| Baking Powder | 1/2 tsp | 1 tsp | 1 1/2 tsp | 2 tsp |
| Salt | 1/4 tsp | 1/2 tsp | 3/4 tsp | 1 tsp |
| Egg | 1/2 | 1 | 1 1/2 | 2 |
| Fresh Mint | 1.5 T | 3 T | 5T | 8 T |
| Lime, juice and zest | 1/2 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
This recipe requires some preparation before hand, but it's all fun stuff, so fear not.
Tear your mint leaves up and place in the bottom of a glass. Pour your milk over and use the back of a spoon (or a muddler, if you have it) to bruise the mint leaves. It won't look pretty, but it will smell awesome. Let sit for at least 15 minutes so the mint and milk can steep together.
Meanwhile, grate the zest off of your thoroughly washed limes (being careful not to grate your knuckles
like I did). I have some sort of small grating contraption I got at Target or somesuch place for relatively cheap. It does offer a nice trap at the back to catch your grated deliciousness, but it does kind of stick to the entire grater. A microplane would be even better. Just make sure not to get any pith in your cupcakes because that would just be sour and icky. Once you've grated all of the zest off of your limes, roll your limes on a hard surface. I kind of wail on mine when I juice by hand because if not, they don't juice particularly well in my weak hands. Cut them open and squeeze the juice into a container. I tossed my zest in there too for good measure. It's all going to the same place. Your hands will smell wonderful for the rest of the day, too.Next, do your average cupcake thing. Sift together your dry ingredients and set aside. Cream together your butter and sugar. Add your eggs and make sure it's all well incorporated.
Once your butter, sugar, and egg mixture is together, strain the mint out of your milk mixture and get rid of the leaves (I actually used dried mint because I wasn't able to get fresh at the store; it left little bits of leaf in there but it's no big deal). Add your milk mix in and then 1/2 of the dry ingredients. Next, add your rum, and then the last half of your flour. Add a tablespoon or two of lime juice to your mix; begin at 1 T for 3 cupcakes, 2 T for 6 cupcakes and so on. Save some for your frosting! Mix until well combined.
Pour into lined cupcake wells. If you're compulsive like me, you can weigh them out; I've found that for this batter, 1 3/4 oz does the job nicely: it gives a nice, round cupcake that doesn't pour over the sides and isn't too far down in the cup. Perfect.
Bake these beauties at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes, checking after 15 minutes. Check with a toothpick for doneness. These are pretty springy, so be aware of that as well.
While your cupcakes are in the oven, prepare your frosting.
Lime-Rum Frosting
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 1/2-2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp rum
2 tsp lime juice-lime zest mix
Cream your butter until fluffy. Gradually add in your powdered sugar until smooth and aerated. Add rum and lime to smooth it out. I prefer more of a lime flavor to this, but you may wish to try more rum, as that can't hurt either. You may wish to add a few drops of green food coloring to the mix to let your tasters know they're dealing with something minty, but I preferred to leave the color out. You can see little speckles of green lime zest in there, and I preferred that to a false green.
For some reason, this was an inordinately thick frosting. I'm not sure if it was a peculiarity of the weather or the mix or whatever else, but it was difficult to pipe. I had intended to use a little star tip to make things a bit fancy, but I ended up cutting the tip off of my piping bag and just making a pretty swirl.
If I had thought ahead, I would have saved a lime and candied it in hot sugar syrup for decoration. But alas, all I have is lovely cupcakes (and my lovely cupcake apron! Thanks Xanadu in Blacksburg!)
