Key Lime Pie Cupcakes ... on a boat!

Made these delicious Key Lime Pie Cupcakes for F's birthday celebration which included sailing on the Chesapeake Bay. I asked F's significant other for cupcake flavor ideas and got key lime pie, cinnamon bun, gingerbread, and pumpkin. At first I was thinking cinnamon bun cupcakes as that sounded like a delicious idea, but then after thinking on it a bit, with the fact spring was upon us and that we were going to be on a boat I figured key lime pie cupcakes would be a much better fit. Glad I did as these cupcakes were a hit! (I'll have to remember the cinnamon bun cupcake idea for next time...). I took pieces from a few different recipes as seen below. Unfortunately as I ended up being on a time crunch to make these (didn't want to be left behind on shore!) I didn't really take any pictures of the process so here are some sailing pics.

Graham Cracker Crust (recipe from Table for Two)

Ingredients*

• 5 whole graham cracker sheets
• 5 tbsp butter, melted
• 1/4 cup sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake pan with 12 cupcake liners.
2. Pulse graham crackers in a food processor into fine crumbs (or by hand using a ziplock bag and a blunt instrument).
3. Transfer into a bowl and using a spatula, mix the graham cracker crumbs with melted butter and sugar until evenly moistened.
4. Drop a little less than a tablespoon of graham cracker mixture into the liners or fill the liners to desired crust thickness. Using your fingers firmly pack and press the graham cracker mixture into the bottom of the liners. After packing with fingers I used the bottom of a 1/4 measuring cup to further pack the crusts.
5. Bake for 5 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven and maintain oven temperature.

*Note for next time, try 6 graham cracker sheets and 4 tbsp butter as the graham cracker crust greased up the cupcake liners and I could have used a bit more graham cracker mixture.

Key Lime Cupcakes (recipe from The Cake Blog)

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 6 tablespoons sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoon key lime zest (2 key limes or 1 lime)*
• 3 egg whites
• 1 1/4 cups (163g) all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons milk
• 4 tablespoons key lime juice*

Instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light in color and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Do not skimp on the amount of creaming time.
2. Add sour cream, vanilla extract, key lime zest and mix until well combined.
3. Add egg whites^ in two batches, mixing until well combined after each. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
5. In a separate small measuring cup, combine milk and key lime juice.
6. Add half of the dry ingredients to the batter and mix until well combined. Add milk mixture and mix until well combined. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated.
7. Fill each of the 12 cupcake liners about 7/8 full. (the cupcakes do not rise much)~
8. Bake for 15-17 minutes at 350°F, or until a toothpick inserted comes out with a few crumbs.
9. Remove cupcakes from oven and allow to cool for 2-3 minutes before removing to cooling rack to finish cooling.

*I used bottled key lime juice which was available at my local Harris Teeter grocery store, however as actual key limes were not available there I used the zest of normal limes.
^Note for next time, maybe whisk the egg whites before adding. Mixture looked separated/curdled when egg whites were added so whisking before might help? I beat the mixture until the separated pieces were small and evenly distributed. It still looked off but the cupcakes turned out okay.
~I put pieces of paper towels in between the cupcake liners and cupcake tin to absorb some of the grease from the graham cracker mixture baking (see below). Next time might do this during the graham cracker mixture baking step as well.



Key Lime Frosting* (recipe halved from Culinary Ginger)

Ingredients

• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened at room temperature for 1 hour
• 2 ounces unsalted butter, softened at room temperature for 1 hour
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon key lime zest (2 key limes or 1 lime)
• 1/2 tablespoon key lime juice
• Green and yellow food coloring (optional)

Instructions

1. Beat cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer.
2. Continue beating while slowly adding in powdered sugar. Add lime juice and zest^. Don’t over mix or it will be too soft to pipe.
3. To get the two-tone piping^, transfer 1 tablespoon of the frosting to a separate bowl and mix with green and yellow food coloring until it is lime green.
4. Refrigerate frosting for 30 minutes to make it firm for piping.
5. Add piping tip of choice to a piping bag. Hold the tip and turn the bag inside out over your hand, paste the green frosting to the side of the bag, close to the tip. Use a separate spoon to add the white frosting to the other side of the bag. Whatever ratio you use, you want more white than green. Pipe onto the cupcakes.

*I was originally going to go more complicated for the frosting, using the Key Lime Buttercream recipe from Better Homes & Gardens but ran short on time so went with this easier one. I actually didn't even have time to frost the cupcakes, so these were served as frost your own cupcakes :p
^As noted above I didn't have time to frost/do the two-tone piping (see Culinary Ginger images) so I just added 1 drop of green food coloring with the lime juice and zest in step 2.