Recipe For Key Lime Yumminess

Key Lime Cupcake

The delayed 4th of July party at The Cottage this past Sunday was a success! One of the favorite desserts was the Key Lime cupcakes I served. These cupcakes taste great and are super simple to make.

The cupcakes fresh out of the oven sans frosting

I thought I'd share the recipe with you all. It's kind of a cheater recipe I came up with ... it starts with a box cake mix (shush ... don't tell anyone). Any white or yellow cake mix will do, I used a French Vanilla.

Mix the cake batter according to the directions on the box, using these substitutions; in place of the water, use Key Lime juice (it's very important to use real Key Lime juice because any other lime juice just doesn't taste the same. If you can't find Key Lime juice at the grocery store, there are plenty of places online that sell it, and believe me, it's worth the extra trouble to get the real deal. I purchased a bottle of Key Lime juice at my local Williams-Sonoma). The cake mix will also call for oil, use butter instead (softened to room temperature). In addition to what the directions call for, also add in one large box of instant vanilla pudding (this will make the cupcakes super moist and extra tasty).

Once the batter is mixed fill the cupcake liners (I bought mine from Bake It Pretty - they have a super assortment of beautiful high quality cupcake liners, the lovely thick greaseproof kind professional bakeries use. They are very inexpensive and Bake It Pretty sends them out super fast. When I couldn't find the brown cupcake liners I had been searching everywhere for, Bake It Pretty had them plus lots of other fantastic choices), bake (according to the directions on the box), and cool to room temperature.

Key Lime Cupcakes waiting to be eaten

Now ... you are ready for the cupcake's crowning glory ... the frosting! No box mix here, what you need is:

1 8-ounce package of cream cheese at room temperature
1 ⁄4-cup butter at room temperature
4-cups powdered sugar (it's better if you sift it to get out the lumps)
1-tablespoon Key Lime juice

Combine the cream cheese, butter, and Key Lime juice until thoroughly blended, then beat in the powdered sugar, adding a cup at a time until the frosting gets a firm but not stiff, consistency (you may not need all 4-cups of the powdered sugar). Then, frost. I like to pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes because I like the swirl but if you don't have piping supplies, just lay the frosting on with an offset spatula.

Now ... the final jewel on the frosting crown ... sand.

Well, at least it looks a bit like sand.

It's really graham cracker crumbs, here's what you need:

1 1 ⁄ 2-cups graham cracker crumbs
1 ⁄ 3-cup white sugar
6-tablespoons butter at room temperature

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and mix with a fork until blended and mixture resembles coarse sand. Then, sprinkle about 1-tablespoon on top of each cupcake (I didn't actually measure, but just spooned it on till it looked right to me). If you don't use all the "sand" just pop the rest in the freezer for your next batch of Key Lime cupcakes.

And that's it. All you have to do now is eat and enjoy!