Happy Memorial Day

I hosted a small BBQ on Sunday for Memorial Day and besides the heat, it went very well. So what's the best thing about sitting out on the deck at night? Margaritas! For this desert or is it dessert, either way - I made Margarita Cupcakes. Normally I would definitely get green liners and and green frosting for the margarita look however I got red liners and made the frosting blue with white sprinkles ... RED WHITE AND BLUE. The cupcakes are more of a denser lime cupcake and the frosting is the margarita/tequila touch:  
-3 cups flour
-1 Tbsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 cup unsalted butter, at room temp
-2 cups sugar
-4 eggs
-3 limes, zested and juiced
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-1 cup buttermilk
1) Preheat oven to 325. Prepare muffin tins with paper liners or baking spray. 2) Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside. Cream butter, vanilla, and sugar on a high until pale, light, and fluffy (about 5 minutes). 3) Add eggs one at at time, mixing thoroughly before adding the next one. 4) Add lime zest and lime juice. 5)Turn mixer to the low. Add the dry ingredients in three batches, alternating with the buttermilk in two batches. Mix only until just incorporated. 6) Fill each muffin cup ~3/4 full. Bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer shows only moist crumbs attached 7) While the cupcakes are still warm, brush the tops with tequila. 
Frosting:  1 cup butter at room temp, 16oz bag confectioner sugar, 2 Tbsp white tequila, 1 lime juiced. Beat sugar and butter together until uniform mixture, add tequila and lime juice, beat until light stiff peaks form. After frosting the cupcakes and decorating with sprinkles, I tapped some coarse sea salt on top to give that little bit of salty punch that a margarita glass would.


Since I love desert/dessert so much - I also made a trifle (not including beef sauteed with peas and onions - for those Friends waters) since I had gotten a trifle glass for Christmas a couple years ago. For this I made a Patriotic Trifle (red, white and blue again). 
-2 cups heavy cream
-½ cup white sugar

-2 cups milk

-2 pkg instant cheesecake pudding mix

-2 teaspoons lemon juice

-½ cup sour cream

-1 prepared angel food cake

-2 (16 ounce) carton strawberries, sliced

-strawberries for garnish

-blueberries for garnish

1) In a medium bowl, combine cream and white sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Set aside. 2) In another bowl beat cheesecake pudding mixes with milk for 2 minutes or until thick. Mix in sour cream and lemon juice. Fold in one cup of the sweetened whipped cream. 3) Slice angel food cake into one inch cubes. 4) In a trifle bowl, start by layering ¼ of the angel food cake on the bottom of the trifle bowl. Next, layer ¼ of the pudding mixture followed by a layer of ¼ of the strawberries. Repeat layers four times or until bowl is almost full. 5) Garnish the top of the trifle with the remaining whipped cream, strawberries, and blueberries. 6) Chill in refrigerator for at least 4 hours.