Strawberry Margarita Cake For Cinco De Mayo

Today is the Cinco de Mayo (May 5), celebrated in many in the United States as an eating and drinking holiday.  Time for something Mexican.

Today is NOT Mexican Independence Day (that comes in September), but rather, today commemorates a 1862 battle where Mexicans defeated a French army despite being outnumbered.  Eventually, the Mexicans won the war and ousted the French.

During our United States Civil War, this holiday and what it stood for started to gain popularity in the United States.  Now, the Cinco de Mayo is actually more celebrated in the United States than in Mexico.

So, tonight we are going to have some Mexican food my spouse (who loves to cook) is making me.  I decided to chip in and contribute a cake.

It's not my original recipe - it belongs to a blogger - Karen of Baking in a Tornado.  This is how she describes herself:  "I'm Karen, a baking, blogging, beach, ballet, Boston and booze fan. I bake to relieve stress, take pictures as proof, and blog to vent.".  May I add that she also aims to get me to deviate from Weight Watchers by publishing delicious sounding recipes.

Today, I am deviating.  From Weight Watchers, that is. 

That said, her recipe is called Strawberry Margarita cake and you can find the original recipe here.  

The frosted yellow cake is from the box of cake mix, by the way

I had to make a few minor tweaks.

One of the ingredients Karen called for was sweetened lime juice.

I have never stocked sweetened lime juice - I'm not a big cocktail maker. I don't even know how sweet it's supposed to be.

So off to the store spouse and I went, and found that the brand they stocked contained corn syrup.  I am no purist, but corn syrup generally is something I don't want in my food. (Pecan pie is an important exception.) So spouse said, oh, why don't I just add some sugar to lime juice?  And he did.  I have a feeling he didn't add enough.  Moving on....

Since I  had duck eggs in the house, I used duck eggs.  Yes, duck eggs. They are wonderful for baking.  Expensive, though I can sometimes get them cheap.  Years ago, when I owned egg laying ducks...but I digress.

There's also a frosting but I did not make it.  Why?  Because I am one of those strange people who don't normally frost their cake.  But if you want frosting, Karen provides a recipe for that, too, at the link above.

And voilà.

It was delicious - light and moist.

If you do make that cake, please give Karen full credit.