Cinco de Mikey

“Tequila. Straight. There's a real polite drink. You keep drinking until you finally take one more and it just won't go down. Then you know you've reached your limit.” - Lee Marvin

Okay, so, I’m actually insanely excited for this week’s dessert because 1) it’s in honor of two, yes, two holidays! My friend Mikey’s birthday and Cinco de Mayo! And 2) It will be my first time cooking with alcohol, which feels fancy and sort of Jersey Shore-esque at the same time.

But first, I want to talk about something a little more serious.

If you read this blog then you know it was birthed out of the painful realization that I have an extremely difficult relationship with food and my body. I have moments where I love it, moments where I tolerate it, and moments where just the fact that I can see it makes me unhappy. Obviously, it’s like this for many people to varying degrees, but a couple of nights ago I fell into a pretty bad space about the whole thing. I couldn’t sleep, I was stressed, and I ate a ton of stuff in my kitchen.

Now, that happens. People stress-eat. It goes back to cavemen times, actually. In the documentary, Killer at Large: Why Obesity is America’s Greatest Threat, they talk about how the body slows itself down in terms of metabolism, etc, when one is stressed, because it thinks the person is going into famine conditions. Dr. Richard Atkinson, an obesity researcher, further explains the problems in terms of our body’s release of cortisol from the adrenal glands when one is under stress. The cortisol tells the brain to eat, while telling the stomach to store, which would be perfectly normal if we were still in the times where stress also led to expending energy, like hunter gatherers. Except, for our times, stress is generally work related (where we’re sitting down), traffic related (where we’re sitting down), or maybe even 3am and you have to get up early and you’re stressed out eating ice cream a la moi (this can occur either in bed, the couch, I really mixed it up last night)

However, while this scenario is common and does happen, what happens afterwards for me is a little different. I don’t simply eat and then chalk in up to a bad day. I eat and then these thoughts come into my head and literally yell insults at me. “You’re fat!” “You’re ugly!” “No one will ever love you!” It’s terrible and it makes me tell myself that in order to gain control of this habit I will have to stop eating and literally use the treadmill until my feet are nubs. (I know this might sound a little intense for a baking blog, but it ties in, I swear) On this week of holidays we need to remember that just having a body is cause for celebration, and that treating your physical-self well is just as important as treating your mental-self well. I know, it’s hard, I mean, we never read articles in Cosmo about how to not hate our mean inner critic, we’re just inundated with articles of how to trim our disgusting thighs. Which is completely backwards in some ways.

So, even though it’s Mikey’s Birthday, I would like you to all give yourself a perfectly wrapped gift of some self-love. Even if it’s just for day. Even if it’s just for a minute. And just know I’ll be right there with you. Tentatively unwrapping.

BUUUUT, in terms of actual unwrapping…let’s get back to the lightheartedness of the baking world! This week’s recipe is:

MARGARITA CUPCAKES WITH TEQUILA-LIME FROSTING!

This recipe is actually a mash-up of two similar recipes from bakers I love! The actual cupcake is from Christina at www.sweetpeaskitchen.com and the icing from the lovely Vegan-Wonders, Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero’s book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, which can be purchased from Amazon.com by clicking this link: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_9?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=vegan+cupcakes+take+over+the+world&sprefix=vegan+cup%2Caps%2C150

Since I wanted to pay homage to both sets of recipes, I mixed them together, changing a few little things from each recipe, but nothing huge. So, without further ado, here’s to May 5^th!

CUPCAKES:

•   3 cups flour

•   1tbsp baking powder

•   1/2 tsp salt

•   1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

•   2 cups granulated sugar

•   4 eggs, at room temperature

•   3 limes, zested* and juiced

•   1/2 tsp vanilla

•   1 cup buttermilk**

•   1 tablespoon tequila

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line muffin pan with baking cup liners.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

4. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Mix in lime zest, juice, tequila and vanilla extract.

5. Reduce the mixer to low speed and add the flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the buttermilk, starting and ending with flour. Mix until just incorporated, do not over-beat.

6. Divide the batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Bake 23-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of cupcakes comes out clean.

7. Remove the cupcakes from the oven and transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely before frosting. 

MARGARITA ICING:

½ cup margarine, softened

2 tablespoons soy or rice milk

6 tablespoons lime juice

2tablespoon tequila

Tiniest drop of green food coloring

4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Generous pinch to 1/8 teaspoon kosher or coarse salt (optional)

Large sugar crystal sprinkles for decorating

DIRECTIONS:

1. Blend margarine with a fork till soft and fluffy, then stir in soy milk, lime juice, tequila, and food coloring. Sift in 2 cups confectioners’ sugar and

blend (an electric mixer at a low speed helps at this point) till creamy and smooth. If it’s a little too liquidy for your taste, sift in the remaining confectioners’ sugar, one tablespoon at a time, till thick but spreadable consistency is reached. Refrigerate till ready to use.

TO ASSEMBLE:

Spread icing on cupcakes, spreading all the way to edges, then roll just the outer edges of cupcake in sugar crystals. If this is way too messy, just sprinkle sugar crystals on the edges of cupcakes by hand.

Makes 24 Cupcakes

So, the cupcakes are in the oven and the batter tastes awesome! It’s tangy and sweet and light and actually tastes like a summer’s day. The tequila is much more pronounced in the frosting, which is a lovely lime green! I cannot wait to see what it looks like with the sprinkles! I also wish you could smell my apartment! It smells like a mixture between birthday cake and key lime pie, totally lovely!

CUT TO AFTER REHEARSAL!

The cupcakes went over swimmingly! I brought in 24 for 12 people and left with only 2! They were refreshing and cute and apparently tasted just like a margarita. The highlight of my night was seeing someone drop a piece of the cupcake on the floor and then discreetly pick it up and eat it; if that doesn’t say that a dessert is good, I don’t know what does!

Til next time,

D

*A note about zesting. I’ve discovered the brilliance of a microplane, which is a tool used for the purpose of grating certain foods and, obviously, zesting citrus fruits. It made the whole process of getting the lime zest ready extremely easy. In fact, the only difficulty I came across was when I asked the good people of William Sonoma to direct me to their selection of hydroplanes. Not correct. So, you know, say microplane if you ever feel like investing in one.

**A note about buttermilk. If you happen to forget to buy buttermilk, or simply can’t find it for some reason at your local grocery store, professional baker and author, Joy Wilson provides some tips on making your own buttermilk in her book Joy the Baker Cookbook, which can be purchased at Amazon.com by clicking this link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1401310605/ref=ox_sc_act_image_3?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

If, however, you don’t want to buy the book, or, you simply need buttermilk right now, here are two ways to create it with things you probably have on hand already:

1.    Mix a scant tablespoon of lemon juice with 1 cup milk. Stir and then let it sit for 2 minutes.

2.    Mix a scant tablespoon of white vinegar with 1 cup milk. Stir and then let sit for 2 minutes.

Both of these can be made with skim, low-fat or whole milk, and they each produce 1 cup of buttermilk.