Key Lime Cupcakes!
It's summer, which means that I have a stronger than usual hankering for the taste of lime. Usually I like to have lime in a tall glass of coke, but due to the fact that I have waged war on empty calories I have decided to cut out soda and juice almost completely. Don't get me wrong, I still drink more than a person's fair share of seltzer water which I make sure is either Lemon, Lime or Orange flavored, but sometimes that is just not enough.
When Ilana decided to have a BBQ at her new hoboken apartment I decided that I would be a good guest and bring something. This was the perfect opportunity to try out some of the cupcakes that I wanted to make. I have a list of "summer" cupcakes that I wanted to try and make. Pina Colada was out of the question thanks to Ilana's allergy to pineapple (although please don't think that this allergy stopped her from drinking some of my pina colada in Puerto Rico. Just recently she admitted that this was NOT a good idea!) The Margarita cupcakes seemed way too involved for the amount of time that I had, and the Pink Champagne Cupcakes required me to not only buy a bottle of champagne at 8am but also to consume the rest of it in that one day...since Ilana also has an aversion to champagne and I wasn't so excited to drink it all on my own before 12:30 I decided that I should skip these cupcakes until we had some sort of night time party where I could convince everyone to drink the remainder of the bottle! So Key Lime Cupcakes won the battle of the desserts!
NOTE: When you cook when you are hungry it is hard not to eat what you are cooking during the cooking! Luckily for me I experienced salmonella first hand and I can assure you...as good as that batter looks...DO NOT lick the bowl!!
The Recipe:
1 Box of Lemon Cake Mix (I used Dunkin Hines simply because I am a big fan of them...and, luckily for me, it was the only lemon cake box on the shelf)
1 Box of lime-flavored jello
3/4 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
3 drops of food coloring
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Place paper baking cups into muffin tins (this recipe made about 24 cupcakes depending on how much batter you placed in each cup).
In a large bowl, beat cake mix and Jello together on low speed for about 30 seconds. (I know that this sounds weird considering that I am telling you to use an electric mixer to mix two dry things together, but you really need to in order to make sure that the lemon and lime fully mix together and each cupcake tastes like lemon-lime instead of a lemon one here and a lime on there.) Add remaining cupcake ingredients. Beat with mixer on low speed for about 30 seconds, then on medium speed for about 2 minutes, making sure to scape the bowl as necessary. Do not over-beat, but make sure that everything is completely mixed in and the batter is smooth.
Pour the batter evenly into each cupcake cup. I like to pour some of my batter into a liquid measuring cup first because the lip makes it easier to pour the batter into the cups. If you have a bowl with a pouring spout you're already all set up for an easy pour.
Bake cupcakes for 17-22 minutes. When you check on the cupcakes stick a toothpick in the center of a cupcake, if it comes out clean the cupcakes are ready! Cool the pan for about 10 minutes before taking the cupcakes out and placing them on a cooling rack.
Time to Make the Frosting!!
1 Container of Betty Crocker or Dunkin Hines whipped fluffy white frosting
1 Tablespoon of fresh Key Lime or regular Lime juice. (make sure to taste your frosting, you might want to add more lime juice. I think I ended up adding at least 2 Tablespoons but I really like my lime flavor!)
1 Full Key Lime or regular Lime sliced into wedges
Open the frosting container and stir the frosting at least 20 times to fluff it up. Gently stir in 1 Tablespoon of lime juice. Taste...if you want more lime keep adding, but at it slowly. NOTE: Adding the lime juice will thin the frosting out. If you are going for a texture rather than intense flavor be very careful about adding the lime juice. Now you can frost your cupcakes one of two ways: You can spoon the frosting into a plastic bag and cut a 1/2 inch angular slit in the corner of the bag. Then you can pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes in a circular motion. I found that since my frosting thinned out so much this was a bit difficult because the frosting would run over the sides so if you are going to pipe it on, make sure to start in the middle and not go all the way to the edges, the frosting will fill in on its own. Make sure to use a minimal amount of frosting. You can also put the frosting on the traditional way with a knife...this worked better for me!! (If you look closely at my picture you can see where the icing started melting off onto my dining room table...how nice!)
When you are all done frosting stick the lime slices on top of the cupcakes and enjoy!!
I was a little worried about sharing these with Jen, Ilana and Erika because I went for the intense lime taste. I guess I forgot that other people had to enjoy them other than myself. However, everyone liked them and everyone had seconds! This recipe is a MUST TRY for the summer. They were refreshing after our huge Trader Joe's supplied meal! Even though we were all stuffed after eating, we were all able to put down at least two of these little gems!
