Mojito Cupcakes
I was invited to a Cinco de Mayo party where the main drink served was mojitos. Who says we can’t have a Cuban drink on a Mexican holiday? I’ll drink a mojito to celebrate any holiday! And I’ll certainly never turn down a mojito cupcake.
I modified the golden vanilla cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and I was super pleased with the results. I infused the soymilk with spearmint and lime juice, added rum and lime zest to the batter, and the frosting is flavored with dark rum instead of vanilla extract. The result is a totally delicious grown-up cupcake. I would have used fresh mint leaves had they been available, but thankfully the dried ones work just fine. Do try to find spearmint as opposed to peppermint, fresh or dry, as that’s the proper mint for your mojito (be it beverage or cupcake!).
Omit:
Apple Cider Vinegar
All Extracts
Add:
Zest of 1 Organic Lime
2 tsp Dried Spearmint
2 Tbs Lime Juice (about 1 lime’s worth)
2 tsp Dark Rum
Prepare “vanilla” cupcakes as the directions state, with the following changes:
Grate the zest of 1 lime into the dry ingredients. Heat the soymilk in a small sauce pan with the dried mint. Bring to a boil, then turn off heat. Let stand for 5 minutes. Pour soymilk through a strainer back into your liquid cup measure. Top off with more cold soymilk if it no longer measures 1 full cup, as some soymilk may have evaporated while the mint was steeping. Add lime juice and rum to this mixture. Proceed with regular directions.
For the rum buttercream frosting, omit the vanilla extract from the fluffy vanilla buttercream and use 2 tsp dark rum and 1 Tbs lime juice instead. I use the entire box of powdered sugar and a splash of soymilk to get the consistency I like. Garnish with mint leaves if availble, lime wedges, and granulaed sugar. Feel free to squeeze your lime segment over your frosting before you eat!
Keep in mind that garnishes such as lime wedges and mint leaves won’t look good if they sit for too long on top of your cupcakes before being served. Save decoration for the last minute if you’re using these garnishes.
Genius! Those look so, so good!
Those cuppers are so gorgeous! No worries about drinking mojitos on cinqo de mayo… I had cuba libres! I can never manage to eat the “correct” foods on the right holidays… besides, there should be a holiday just for commemorating the cocktail contributions of Cuban culture! ;-)
WOW! I love it when people change around recipes as it gives me more ideas for doing the same. How pretty and totally yummy looking!
Those look so yummy!!! and since cinco de mayo is only celebrated in the states (not mexico) I say we can celebrate with any kind of food we want! this looks perfect!
You have NO IDEA how excited these make me! I make a mean mojito, and some friends just brought me a ton of rum from Cuba in exchange for cat-sitting. I was already planning a mojito party so these would be the BEST companion to that!
That frosting looks so creamy and fluffy! Beautiful porn, lolo!
beautiful!
These are amazing. The frosting is the best thing ever.
These look so tasty. I’ve been addicted to cupcakes ever since VCTOTW came out. Quick question: What’s sprinkled on the icing? Sugar crystals?
Lolo, you’re brilliant! These cupcakes, are gorgeous! Can’t wait to make them.
Wow, your very savy with changing recipes around. The presentation is fantastic.
very cuban! looks so good!
That looks delicious. I don’t think I’d make it to the baking part, though. I love mojitos.
Thanks!! Your comments are all so sweet!
Cindy – They are giant sugar crystals that I bought at a local Indian market. They were simply marked “sugar candy.”
Wow those look amazing!
A great cupcake for adults! Thanks for a great recipe idea!
Mmm. These look delicious!
I just made these and they were soooooo good! Since I only had white rum, I used dark brown sugar instead of white sugar to get the same spices in the cake. I’ll definitely be making these again!
i don’t have a copy of that book. you wouldn’t happen to have the full receipe, would you?
I’ve been wanting to make these FOREVER and now that I finally have VCTOTW, I am going to put that on my to-do list :)
I absolutely love the pictures. I’ve done a mojito cake before, but have been looking for a good recipe for mojito cupcakes that were different from what I had already been using. Bangup job on the pictures and the lighting.
Look so cute, I never though to make “Grown Up” cupcakes!
Awesome Vegan Girl
I just made these and they were fantastic. My only comment is that for me the icing ended up tasting kind of plain; next time I’ll add more lime juice and rum to it. I used fresh mint and the flavor from that was really good! Thanks for posting!
I love it! The perfect mix of mojito and dessert.