oh. my. cupcakes!

I have three words for you, my dear readers: Key. Lime. Cupcakes. Your life will never be the same. Plain ‘ol funfetti cupcakes will be ruined for you forever, for you will have tasted the awesomeness that is a creamy, limey, bit of bliss. I kid you not, these are amazing.


To create these heavenly cupcakes, I played around with a recipe from the cake mix doctor. The original calls for coconut flavoring in the cake and coconut meringue topping. For my version you will need:

- 1 large lime (this is used to create 1 teaspoon of zest and 2 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon of juice) you may want an extra lime for garnish
- 4 eggs (1 whole + 3 yolks)
- 1 plain yellow cake mix
- 1 small box of vanilla instant pudding mix
- 1 ¼ cups water
- 1/3 cup cooking oil
- 1 can of key lime pie filling (you only need about a ½ cup of the filling)
- cream cheese icing

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl add the one egg and three egg yolks. Add cake and pudding mix, water, oil, lime zest, and lime juice. Mix with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Scrape bowl and continue to mix on medium speed for several more minutes or until batter is well blended. Line two 12 hole cupcake pans with wrappers and fill 2/3 full with batter. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack for 15 minutes.

Now for the filling! I used my new Wilton cupcake kit to fill my cup cakes with key lime pie filling. I’ve also heard you can use a turkey baster to do this.

To fill the cupcakes, simply insert the tip of your icing bag or turkey baster about halfway into the center of the cupcake. Squeeze until the filling just reaches the top of the cupcake.

Finish your cupcakes off with a swirl of cream cheese icing.

I used a Wilton 1M decorating tip. For this look, draw a circle of icing just in from the edge of the cupcake. Going the opposite direction, draw a smaller circle of icing on top of the first circle. Finish by ending in the center with an extra squeeze of icing and pulling straight up.

Look at all the lovely icing and filling! I think my 2010 healthy eating plan is in big trouble.

If you could create your own ultimate cupcake, what would it be like?

<3
Hattie