Gin and Tonics are my favorite drink. To me, they are the perfect balance of flavors (which is hard to come by in the world of well drinks). They get me happy drunk (as opposed to embarrassing drunk) and are so light and refreshing. I was so excited when I came across this recipe for Gin and Tonic Cupcakes. At first it seemed like kind of a weird idea. Gin and Tonic...in a cake? Hmm...something about juniper berry, quinine and lime does not really scream "dessert" to me. But hey, I wouldn't be a pragmatist if I didn't try!The recipe consists of two parts: the cake and the frosting (duh). The cake is an angel food cake flavored with tonic water. I have nothing against Angel food cake except that I don't have an electric mixer and I must admit that I suck at whipping stuff up by hand and suck even harder at making cake from scratch. The frosting is a mixture of powdered sugar, mascarpone cheese, corn syrup and gin, also requiring an electric mixer. I had to put my innovative cheap college student mind to this. My roommate usually keeps our cupboards stocked with at least 6 boxes of cake mix and cans of frosting. Whenever there is a sale...ho boy, watch out!
So instead of fretting over getting things right from scratch, I took the cake doctor approach. I used a box of white cake mix and a can of cream cheese frosting, doctored them up and came up with a very good approximation to the recipe.
The original recipe did not call for very much lime flavoring to be incorporated into the cakes themselves besides the garnish. To me, the quintessential part of a gin and tonic is the lime. It makes the caustic combination of gin and tonic into a refreshing beverage. Plus, I am always a proponent of citrus fruit in baked goods. Here is my process:
FROSTING
Fresh out of mascarpone so had to doctor up a can of cream cheese frosting I had laying around the apartment. I added 2 tbsp of gin and about 1/3 of the zest I got from a lime. The lime adds a very nice touch since it goes really well with gin. I figured that some people really like to eat the frosting first or a bit of it alone before biting into the cake and the flavor of gin would be a bit overwhelming. The gin loosened up the frosting quite a bit so I added about 3 tbsp of confectioner's sugar to tighten it back to the right consistency. Per the original recipe, I dyed the frosting a pale green with two drops of food coloring. It looks very pleasant, wouldn't you say?CAKE
Mmm...white cake mix, my dear friend. I followed the normal directions on the back of the box except I replaced the some of the water for 3 tbsp of Tonic water and the juice of one lime, subtracting that amount (about 4 tbsp) from the 1 1/3 cups of water called for. I also added the remaining zest from the lime I had zested for the frosting. I used the remnants of a bottle of tonic that had gone flat in the fridge since I only wanted the tonic flavor. I baked the cake according to the directions on the box and let them cool completely before frosting.RESULTS
These cupcakes are as light as refreshing as the drink! The slight hint of tonic and lime in the cake goes so well with the hint of herbal-ly gin and lime in the frosting. What seemed like a pretty disgusting idea turned out to be quite delicious! I made these for my roommate's birthday. And once she and her friends return from Six Flags this evening, I bet they will be pleasantly surprised by these scrumptious little delights!
