Thursday, June 19, 2008

Cupcake #1: Key Lime Cupcakes

Y'all, I've been obsessed with cupcakes lately. I look at blogs of bakers who specialize in cupcakes; I look at books of cupcakes. (I've also been obsessed with mini-cheeseburgers--"sliders"--lately too...maybe it has something to do with mini-versions of bigger foods or something.) Anyway, I've decided that I want to get in on this cupcake action, so last night I made key lime cupcakes.

I didn't find the perfect recipe on the Internet, so, in a very-uncharacteristic-of-me-like fashion, I took a cupcake recipe and adapted it (it didn't have enough lime juice in it for my taste, so I added more), and a frosting recipe (again, adding more lime juice). (I say this is uncharacteristic of me because I'm very "go by the rules" when it comes to recipes.)

At first, the results were disappointing. The cupcakes themselves were ugly and sunken in the middle. And still not lime-y enough for my taste. The frosting was better (a cream cheese/key lime mixture), but I thought the result wasn't worth the effort. To make my concoction look prettier, at least, I added a lime wedge for garnish.

This morning, though, I tried them again after they spent the night in the fridge. They seemed better. I don't know...the verdict is still out.

Here's a pic:

7 comments:

Kristy said...

Key lime cupcakes...that sounds REALLY good! They look good, too. I wonder if the acidity of the lime juice had anything to do with the cake being "sunken" in? Don't worry, though, it's the taste that matters. There's a bakery here that does fabulous lemon cupcakes, but there is only a hint in the actually cake. Most of the flavor is in the cream cheese icing.

Anonymous said...

I can't do cupcakes, because I would eat them all at once. Seriously, a whole batch.

That said, you may have seen this on my (never-updated anymore) cooking blog, but this is a recipe for Key Lime Cake that I modified into cupcakes once with great success. Maybe it could be something for you to tinker with--there's a cake, a "glaze," and an icing...and it's all way limey!

Amy said...

Kristy--hmmm...maybe. That thought crossed my mind.

Max--thanks for that link. I actually thought about that cake as I was searching for a recipe online. I think I may try those for Cupcake #2. (Or Cupcake #1, The Remix.)


Also...should I have said "the jury is still out"? My coffee apparently hadn't kicked in when I typed that post.

Anonymous said...

Have you thought about some sort of filling for the cupcakes, so you could get your key lime fix?(With which I SO indentify!) My grandmother used to make lemon curd filled cupcakes...sounds gross...was oh, so good. I keep looking at jars of lime curd.
I am very sad that I did not get to sample these delish looking cupcakes. Sunken in is my fav style! HA!

Amy said...

Kim, I did think about a filling. The recipe I used was originally a key lime-coconut cupcake with coconut flavoring in the cake part, a key lime filling, and a coconut-meringue frosting. While I like coconut, I just wanted a strictly key lime cupcake, but I also wanted a cream cheese frosting. I left out the coconut flavoring with the cupcake and added more key lime juice, and I was concerned that the filling might be too much sweetness with the cream cheese frosting.

As you can tell, I really put a lot of thought into this cupcake! (And no, a cupcake filled with lemon curd does NOT sound disgusting to me...it sounds delicious!)

No worries, Kim--I might try Max's version for our get together next week!

Jenny said...

I don't like the word "curd".

I like making cupcakes, but they never look very good.

Amy said...

I don't like the word "curd" either. Kind of gross sounding, huh?