Key Lime Cupcakes

So, here I was thinking I had this great idea, key lime cupcakes. I thought I would make a graham cracker cake, fill it with key lime filling, and top it with whipped cream. I felt very original. So off I went to google recipes for graham cracker cupcakes, and what did I discover, but that Garrett at Vanilla Garlic had already done it. Oops. But, he said his recipe was really good, so I figured I may as well try it. Two of my friends joined me for making these cupcakes. I changed the recipe just a little, I think to no real effect (instead of mixing whipped cream into the key lime filling, I folded in some egg white). I’ve reprinted Garrett’s recipe below, with my few modifications.

Graham Cracker Cupcakes
For me this made 21 cupcakes, Garrett said it made 12-14

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup of milk
1 cup of flour
1 ½ cups of graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 30 seconds after each addition.

2. In a food processor, or a heavy duty ziplock bag, pummel the graham crackers into crumbs.

3. Whisk together the flour, graham cracker, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

4. Add ¼ of the flour mixture and ¼ of the milk to the butter, and mix. Continue adding by alternating the milk and flour, until fully combined.

5. Fill the cupcake liners using a ¼ cup measure. Bake for 14-17 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Key lime filling
This makes more than is necessary for the cupcakes, use the rest in something else

5 egg yolks
1 tsp key lime zest
½ cup key lime juice (takes about 20 limes)
1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk

1. Zest a few key limes, until you get enough zest. Then cut each key lime in half and use a juicer (I used the little hand kind) to get out the juice. I recommend putting a strainer over your juice container to catch seeds and pulp.

2. Beat the egg yolks until they lighten in color and become thick. Whisk in the sweetened condensed milk, the lime juice and the zest. Place in the fridge to set.

3. Here is where I differed from Garrett, I whipped up one of the egg whites with a Tsp of sugar, then folded about a cup of the egg whites into the lime filling. I didn’t find that this really did much. Garrett whisked in 2 cups of whipped cream. His way probably resulted in a thicker filling.

Whipped cream
I used only 1 cup of cream, Garrett used 3

1 Cup of whipping Cream
¼- ½ cup powdered sugar

1. Using chilled beaters, beat the cream and the sugar to stiff peaks.

Assembly
1. Using the cone method, fill the cupcakes with the key lime filling.
2. Frost the cupcakes with some whipped cream.