Time for Key Lime

A few weeks ago The Pioneer Woman tweeted something about Key Lime Cupcakes in Salt Lake City and I thought the idea was brilliant.  The odd thing is that I don't think I have ever had true key lime pie.  I just really like the idea of it.  Over Christmas I made a quick version key lime pie I found in a magazine, but it was not very good and I decided it was too much of a failure to share.  It did not ruin my desire for key lime and I am glad for that.    

 

Immediately after reading this tweet, I jumped online and into my 500 Cupcakes cookbook for recipes.  I found many that were like the one I am going to share with you and others had actual key lime cream filling with meringue for frosting.  I thought about combining these recipes to some degree by mixing different cakes with the different frostings, but in the end I decided to stick with the recipe I found on Bon Appetit.  I was feeling lazy and didn't want to deal with a six step process to make cupcakes.  I will someday, just not now. 

 

These are delicious and I had enough batter to make 18 cupcakes instead of 12 like the recipe said.  They didn't rise very much, but maybe they were not suppose to, I'm not sure and I can't really tell from their picture if theirs did or not. It took me forever to actually bake these because I kept missing one thing or another and I kept missing the fact that the butter and cream cheese need to be at room temperature.  I also added coconut to the tops of half of them.  I think it was a good addition.

 

Cupcake Ingredients 

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup self-rising flour
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lime peel
• 1/4 teaspoon neon-green food coloring
• 3/4 cup buttermilk

Frosting

• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted utter, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lime peel
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• Coconut if desired 

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line standard muffin pan with 12 paper liners. Whisk both flours in medium bowl. Beat butter in large bowl until smooth. Add sugar; beat to blend. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then next 3 ingredients (batter may look curdled). Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with buttermilk in 2 additions. Spoon scant 1/3 cup batter into each liner.
2. Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan; cool.
3. FROSTING: Beat all ingredients except coconut in medium bowl until smooth. Spread over cupcakes. Spinkle coconut on top. 
   
    
   ENJOY!