Gin and Tonic Cupcakes

I've been asked to share the gin and tonic cupcake recipe, but wanted to do a bit more fine tuning before making the recipe public. I kept meaning to get to it, but life continued to get in the way (go figure!), but I decided today was the day to work on the recipe and get it to a place I'm happy with.

Summer has (finally) arrived in Seattle, which didn't exactly make me jump at the idea of heating up our kitchen with wild enthusiasm. Instead, I scaled the recipe to a size that would fit in our toaster oven. I have 9 silicone muffin cups and they fit on the cookie sheet that came with the toaster oven, so that's what I wound up making. You can definitely scale the recipe up to make more than 9 cupcakes!

Without further ado: Gin and Tonic Cupcakes

Yield: 9 cupcakes

Cupcake Ingredients:

• 1/4 c butter (at room temp)
• 1 egg
• 1/3 + 1/4 c all-purpose flour
• 1/3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 c milk
• 1/8 c gin (I used Bombay Sapphire)
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 T lime zest

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In medium bowl, beat butter with electric mixer until smooth.
3. Add sugar, egg, and lime zest. Mix well.
4. In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk a few times to remove any lumps.
5. Pour milk and gin into a measuring cup (one with a spout is helpful).
6. Alternate adding the flour mixture (1/3 at a time) and the milk/gin mixture (1/2 at a time) to the butter/sugar mixture. Note: Start and end with adding the flour mixture and mix well after each addition.
7. Spray paper muffin cups with non-stick spray.
8. Spoon batter into muffin cups (fill each cup about 3/4 full)
9. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
10. Place on wire rack to cool.

Frosting Ingredients:

• 4 T butter
• 2 T Crisco
• 9 1/2 T gin (again, I used Bombay Sapphire)
• 3/4-1 tsp True Lime (use less or more depending upon how "limey" you want it
• 5 c powdered sugar
• 1 T whipping cream

Directions:

1. In  medium bowl, mix butter and Crisco with electric mixer until smooth.
2. Add 2 c. powdered sugar and True Lime. Mix well.
3. Add gin. Mix well.
4. Add remaining powdered sugar or enough until you get a smooth frosting; the exact amount will vary depending upon your local climate.
5. When cupcakes are completely cool, pipe or spread the frosting on the cupcakes.
6. EAT UP!!