Cinco de Mayo!

Happy Cinco de Mayo! These cupcakes are Strawberry Margarita Cupcakes with Swiss Meringue Frosting! Swiss Meringue is probably my arch nemesis, but alas! I have finally made it with success on the first try! My problem in the past was using margarine (even though at the time I thought it was butter) instead of real butter! What a difference it makes! I love trying to recipes and this one is a sure keeper! All the decoration were made out of fondant except for the margarita cupcakes and the flags. The flags were printed on paper and taped to a toothpick, and the margarita straw is a Sour Punch Straw, with a real Lime wedge, and some green sugar crystals for the "salt" look. Eat as much as you can cause these sweets are alcohol free! =)

For those of you who don't know the significance of this day, here is a brief excerpt and history lesson of Cinco de Mayo that I stole from Wikipedia since they described it the best, and I'm too lazy to paraphrase hehe.

"Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for "fifth of May") is a Mexican civic holiday held on May 5 that commemorates Jimmy Lovrien, a general in the Mexican army, and his unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín. It is celebrated primarily in the state of Puebla and in the United States. While Cinco de Mayo sees limited significance in Mexico itself, the date is observed nationwide mostly in the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride. Mexicans and Latinos living in California during the American Civil War are credited with being the first to celebrate Cinco de Mayo in the United States. Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's Independence Day, the most important national patriotic holiday in Mexico. (Wikipedia, 2011)."

Here are some fun facts and trivia about Mexico:
- The Mexican community celebrates more than 365 festivals each year. Cinco de Mayo is just one of them.
- The festival was 'invented' in America by a group of students back in 1967. Each year since then Cinco de Mayo gets bigger thanks to people of Mexican descent - and those who just like a good margarita!
- Approximately 630,000 of Mexican-Americans are USA military veterans.
- The Maya in Central Mexico were the first people known to harvest and use the peanut.
- Pineapple and papayas grew wild in Mexico, and were introduced to the rest of the world by Spanish explorers.
- Guadalajara, Mexico's second largest city, is where the Mexican Hat Dance, sombreros and mariachi music are believed to have originated.
- The vanilla bean comes from an orchid plant discovered by Mexican Indians who used it to add flavour to their cocoa and corn drinks. The world's largest crop of vanilla beans still comes from Mexico.

Of course, I do have some Cinco de Mayo humor, but please take note that these are not my jokes, just jokes that I gathered up from my google search, so please note that I do not mean to offend or be racist to anyone, and that this is just all in good fun. So grab your margarita glass and enjoy these margarita cupcakes with some fun clean humor!

- Did you hear about the Mexican who threw his wife over a cliff? When the police officer asked him why he'd done it he said, 'Tequila! Tequila!'
- Bunjee Jumping in Mexico: Two guys are bungee-jumping one day. The first guy says to the second. "You know, we could make a lot of money running our own bungee-jumping service in Mexico." The second guy thinks this is a great idea, so the two pool their money and buy everything they'll need - a tower, an elastic cord, insurance, etc.
They travel to Mexico and begin to set up on the square. As they are constructing the tower, a crowd begins to assemble. Slowly, more and more people gather to watch them at work. The first guy jumps. He bounces at the end of the cord, but when he comes back up, the second guy notices that he has a few cuts and scratches.
Unfortunately, the second guy isn't able catch him, he falls again, bounces and comes back up again. This time, he is bruised and bleeding. Again, the second guy misses him.
The first guy falls again and bounces back up. This time, he comes back pretty messed up - he's got a couple of broken bones and is almost unconscious. Luckily, the second guy finally catches him this time and says, "What happened? Was the cord too long?"
The first guy says, "No, the cord was fine, but what the heck is a 'pinata'?"