Key Lime Cupcakes

Cake mix

1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour

1 1/2 tsp of baking powder

2 large eggs

3/4 cup of white sugar

1 stick of unsalted butter

1/2 cup of buttermilk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 T of Key Lime Juice

1/2 tsp salt

Green and Yellow food coloring

Frosting

2 sticks of unsalted butter

2 tsp of Key Lime Juice

2 cups powdered sugar

1 heaping tsp vanilla

Zest of one Lime

Cupcakes:

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees. Allow butter to soften to room temperature. To aid with this process, I take a stick out of the fridge and cut it into chunks or slices before I do anything else and dump it in my mixer bowl to soften while I do other things. While that's getting soft, combine flour, baking powder, and salt together in a separate bowl and whisk well. Set it aside. Now is when I take my time getting everything else ready (so my butter can soften, you know). I line my cupcake pan with liners, measure out my milk, go ahead and dump the sugar into the mixing bowl with the butter, take my eggs out and crack and whisk them together in a small bowl, set out the vanilla, etc. THEN when I can think of nothing else to do, I turn on my mixer and cream the butter and sugar well. Depending on how patient, or impatient, I have been, I might have to turn my mixer on high to make sure the butter and sugar are well creamed. Make sure you take a spatula and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to get out excess sugar that's tried to get away.

Next add your egg mixture (I usually pour in half, mix, and then pour in the rest and mix again), again the time to make sure all is getting mixed and not sticking to the sides or bottom. Add vanilla.

Finally, it's time to alternate adding the dry ingredients with the milk. A good rule of thumb for baking in general is to begin with the dry and end with the dry. You're going to have way more flour mix than you do milk, so give generous with the dry and sparingly with the wet, stopping to mix each in the batter before adding the other. In the end, you'll add your Key lime juice. This is usually pretty easy to find in the grocery store with the baking supplies. If you can't find it, though, I don't see why regular lime juice wouldn't do the trick.

Once you've got your batter, this is where you will add the green and yellow food coloring. Mix just a dash at a time until you're getting the color you like. It might take a try or two to get it right. If there's an exact science to this I haven't discovered it yet!

Lastly, a good rule I follow for filling cupcake liners is a little bit more than halfway, about 3/4's because I like my cupcakes to rise above the paper. I don't know why they taste better to me that way, they just do. I take either a Tablespoon spoon or a cookie dough scoop and fill them up about three scoops each. My goal is to make them all even. If you're making 12, then you should have no batter left over.

Bake them for about 18-20 minutes.

Frosting:

When the cupcakes are cool enough, I cut up two sticks of cold butter and a heaping tsp of vanilla and cream them in my mixer until they are no longer solid. I then add the powdered sugar one cup at a time and mix well until all is combined. Then add the key lime juice and lime zest. If you're not a huge fan of the zest, half it. I just think it looks pretty with the frosting and the smell is so refreshing while you're zesting! To frost these, I simply filled a ziplock back with the frosting and snipped the corner. It doesn't exactly look professional, but I thought it was cute enough since I was making these for a friend's birthday.

Hope you like this really easy recipe!

Casey