Gluten Free Cocktail Cupcakes

(left to right) Mojito, Strawberry Margarita, Irish Coffee, Whiskey Sour, Blow Jobs, Black Russian.

A good friend of mine was having a birthday and I gave her cupcakes for her party as my gift for her.  She loves cocktails, so I decided to make several different types of cocktail cupcakes.  I went to wikipedia and looked at the list of cocktails and tried to choose ones that would be easy to make as cupcakes.  For the vanilla cupcake based ones, I used my standard vanilla recipe.  I removed 2 Tablespoons of the liquid and added 2 T of Lime juice in it's place.  For the chocolate based cupcakes, I used my standard chocolate cupcake recipe. I then added instant espresso powder to it (instead of using Kahula) 

After each batch came out of the oven, I allowed them to cool for 10 minutes, then I brushed the tops with the appropriate alcohol.  Then allowed them to completely cool before frosting.

For the frosting base - I used the standard butter cream frosting - adding the ingredients listed below to each instead of the liquid.

I then made the following:

Vanilla Based

Whiskey Sour:  Brushed cupcakes with whiskey.  Frosted with butter cream made with whiskey.

Stawberry Margarita: Added pureed strawberries to the cupcake mix (reduced liquid by this amount).  Brushed cupcakes with tequila. Frosted with butter cream made with sea salt, pureed strawberries, tequila.

Mojito: Added a couple drops of mint oil to the cupcakes mix. Brushed cupcakes with rum.  Frosted with butter cream made with rum, chopped up fresh mint leaves, raw brown sugar.

Chocolate Based (again, all had coffee added, to replace need for Kahula)

Blow Job: Brushed cupcakes with baileys. Frosted with butter cream made with baileys.  Then topped with whipped cream.

Irish Coffee: Brushed with whiskey.  Frosted with butter cream made with whiskey. Topped with chocolate covered coffee bean.  

Black Russian: Brushed with Vodka.  Frosted with butter cream made with vodka.

They were all a big hit.  I think next time though, I will make them all "shot" sized (using my mini cupcakes pan) so that people can try several different ones.  As it was, you only really got to try one type.

The Mojito (the main birthday cupcake for the birthday lady! Absolutely FABULOUS!!!  These were soooo yummy!! I had a problem frosting them though, as the mint leaves kept plugging up the frosting tip :) Gluten Free of course!