It's 5 o'clock somewhere, so let's have a cocktail--
except let's make our cocktail a cupcake infused with tequila
using our new shot tops.
Hey, everyone.
It's Beth.
I'm here in the Wilton Test Kitchen.
Today, we're going to make a Paloma, which
is a delicious combination of grapefruit, lime, and tequila.
So let's get started.
First things first, we need to line our cupcake pan
with baking cups.
And I have these cute little color cups
that have cocktails on the outside of them
to go along with my theme.
And these are color cups, which means when you bake in them,
they are going to retain all of their vibrant color
on the outside.
So you'll still be able to see those drinks,
even after the cupcakes are baked.
First, we need to zest and juice a grapefruit.
I'm using a microplane, which is a really great tool for zesting
citrus, because it takes off just the very top most
part of the zest and none of the bitter pith underneath.
I really recommend this tool.
But if you don't have one, you can just
use a regular box grater.
I'm going to cut this in half and then juice it.
And a really easy way to do that is just to use a fork
and mash it up.
You're going to need a little bit over 1/3
of a cup of juice total.
Now we're going to do the same thing with the lime.
But to get the juice going in a lime,
it's helpful to roll it on the counter for a few seconds
to get things moving inside.
Super easy, and it'll make it much easier to juice.
And then go ahead and zest the lime.
And then cut this guy in half and juice it.
Oh!
It got me in the face.
I need to divide these zests.
I need 1/2 of a teaspoon of the grapefruit zest for the cake
and 3/4 of a teaspoon for the icing.
And for the lime zest, we need 1/2
a teaspoon for the cake batter, and 1/4 teaspoon for the icing.
So we'll set this aside for our icing
until we're ready to make that later.
If you left the seeds in your grapefruit juice like I did,
you'll just need to strain it out to get rid of those guys.
And then we need 2 tablespoons of juice for icing--
so I'll set that aside--
and 1/4 cup for our cake.
And then divide the lime juice.
We need a tablespoon for the icing
and about 2 teaspoons for the cake batter.
Now we're going to combine our dry ingredients into the bowl.
So I have cake flour, baking powder, baking soda,
and salt. Stirring it together so that everything is combined.
Now for our wet ingredients.
I have tequila.
And I'm using silver, but you can use gold if you like,
and our grapefruit juice, and sour cream.
This is going to play off the tartness
of our grapefruit and lime zest.
Into a large mixing bowl, dump granulated sugar, butter,
softened to room temperature, and our lime and grapefruit
zests.
And then cream these together until they're
nice and light and fluffy.
And then add 3 eggs to the bowl and mix well.
Add your dry ingredients and your tequila
in three different editions.
So a 1/3 of the flour, 1/2 of the tequila,
a 1/3 of the flour, the rest of the tequila mix,
and then the rest of the flour.
Don't forget to stop and scrape, so everything
is good and well-combined.
And then scoop, filling your cupcake liners about 2/3 full.
Baking a preheated 350 degree oven for 18 to 20 minutes.
For our icing, we're putting our shortening and our butter
into our mixing bowl.
Can we just act like that didn't happen?
And remember the zest that we reserved from our grapefruit
and our lime?
Put those in too.
And then we want to beat them together.
Add your confectioner's sugar about a cup at a time.
[MIXER STARTS]
Oh!
Oh my God!
Is your camera OK?
[LAUGHING] Look it!
[LAUGHING]
I haven't got all of my sugar in the bowl yet,
but my icing is really pretty firm.
So I'm going to go ahead and add my grapefruit juice
and my lime juice that's left over from earlier.
This will help to loosen it up, so I can
get the rest of my sugar in.
The finishing touches are a splash of tequila
and a little bit of pink and yellow icing color.
I've bagged up my icing with a 1 m tip.
And I'm going to cover the tops of my cupcakes
completely with a nice 1 m swirl--
super high, really luscious.
I'm going to garnish with a little bit of course sea salt,
because it works really well with tequila.
Think about a Margarita.
It's usually got a salted rim.
Finishing touches-- I'm going to use the shot tops
infusers to infuse my cupcakes with tequila.
They're super simple to use.
You just cut a tiny bit off the end of the infuser,
insert it into your liquid--
in this case, I'm using tequila--
and squeeze it.
And it will fill up.
So it looks like a little bottle full of something.
And it works kind of like a turkey baster.
It just holds all the liquid inside
so you can pop it right into your cupcake
as a cute decoration.
And then when you're ready to eat it, squeeze it back out--
the liquid infuses into the cupcake beautifully--
and take a bite.
Ooh.
It tastes-- tastes like vacation.
Shot tops are so fun because they infuse your cupcakes
with a ton of flavor.
They're really great for a party.
Now I'm going to leave the recipe for these Paloma
cupcakes below, so that you can make them.
The links to the products are also below,
so you can check those out.
And I'm Beth.
I'll see you soon.
Cheers!
[MUSIC PLAYING]