some boozy desserts for cinco de mayo....!

....some desserty-serts for the grown-ups around here to celebrate the festive 5th of may!....is it terrible that i don't even really know the history of cinco de mayo?...aside from going to get some great mexican food and beers...? ok according to the all knowing wikipedia....cinco de mayo is a mexican civic holiday commemorating mexico's victory over the french on may 5th, 1862 during the battle of puebla...oh and apparently only really celebrated here in the US as an excuse to get some great mexican food and beers....great back on target then....!

.....first some margarita cupcakes....used a boxed vanilla cake mix but also added a box of this stuff.....

...i just added the jello powder to the dry mix and added an extra egg more than what the box calls for....and to give it a little something something....also injected them with some real margarita (prob about 4 mL) .....not because i wanted to drink a margarita at 1 pm on a saturday or anything....(ps those kiddo medicine syringes come in handy, right?)

....the icing is lime buttercream....my fav vanilla buttercream but with the juice of 2 limes added in place of some of the milk, and the zest of one of the limes mixed in at the very end.....this stuff would make an awesome icing shot...!

....i used a "lime wedge" made from candy melts because i didn't want the tops getting soggy or wet from a real lime wedge.....i've gone over how to make candy melt toppers a gagillion times....but you can find the basics here....

.....and because margarita cupcakes were just not enough also made some.......

....i wanted to make them with some dos equis in the spirit of cinco de mayo, but didn't have a chance to pick any up....so it's made with a birra moretti.........i couldn't really find any beer jello or gelatin recipes (go figure) so i had to wing it.....with:

beer jello

1 cup of beer

2 packets of knox gelatin

1 cup of water

6 packets of splenda (or you can use 1/2 cup of sugar)

icing or cool whip topping

lime garnish

....add the gelatin to cold beer and let sit to thicken....heat 1 cup of water to a boil then remove from heat.....add gelatin/beer mix to hot water and mix with a whisk.....add splenda and mix again.....pour into your cups and refrigerate (i let it sit over night).....once solid....top with frosting or cool whip topping (i used the lime buttercream from the cupcakes above) and garnish with a lime slice....very simple!

...the cupcakes may have been the best cupcakes i've made to date....the lime/margarita cupcake with the lime buttercream was so very awesome and the injected margarita was not too much and didn't make the cake too soggy either....

...the beer jello tasted like beer jello!....but not overpowering for jello or anything....not my favorite dessert but definitely not terrible either....the 41 year old kid tasted it and said it was ok...but he'd rather just drink a beer vs eat some beer jello...i can't argue with that...!....but it was fun to experiment and it was so simple and took no time at all really.....

...anyway hope everyone has a great cinco de mayo tomorrow---can't wait to get some great mexican food and some real beers...!

tidymom