Key Lime Pie Cupcakes with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

This weekend we went to a resort and spa with Number One's father and stepmother-in-law, and Number One's brother and sister-in-law and our niece met up with us halfway through. Since our sister-in-law's birthday is coming up, I decided it would be a nice idea to take some cupcakes with us to celebrate.

I got this recipe from Stef of Cupcake Project, my partner from last month's Taste & Create. She got the recipe from Garrett of Vanilla Garlic. Stef changed Garrett's recipe by baking Garrett's key lime filling right into the cake, and that sounded perfect to me.

Once I got it together to make these, they're actually quite easy. I finally figured out the best way to get the soupy batter into the liners: a small gravy ladle and a spoon for scraping! This batter is tasty, and I ended up with 30 cupcakes!

Stef used lime frosting on her cupcakes. I didn't have lime extract, and I thought lime frosting on a lime cupcake sounded too, well, limey, so I changed the frosting into a coconut frosting. I also topped each cupcake with some lovely toasted natural coconut. (that means raw, unsweetened. I toasted it in my toaster oven at about 350 degrees F for just a few minutes, keeping a close eye on it)

Very beautiful and very delicious, the cupcakes were a big hit, two nights in a row. I'm so glad I stuck the extras in the refrigerator, now we'll have a few more to eat this week!

These cupcakes are sweet and tangy, and the coconut frosting + toasted coconut was the perfect topping! I will be making these again, exactly the same way.

*Robot cupcake liners, chosen by H-Bomb

Key Lime Pie Cupcakes
from Stef of Cupcake Project

Makes 24 cupcakes

• 1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup flour
• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 5 egg yolks
• 1 - 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup lime or key lime juice

1. Beat the butter for about 30 seconds until creamed.
2. Add the sugar and mix for 3 minutes until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, being sure to beat for 30 seconds for each egg.
4. Use food processor or a potato masher or whatever you have on hand to grind the graham crackers into tiny crumbs and powder.
5. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking soda and powder, and salt.
   
6. Add about 1/4 of the mixture to the butter mixture.
7. Add some of the milk.
8. Continue to add the ingredients in a dry - wet - dry method, ending with the dry.
9. Mix until just combined.
10. In a separate bowl, mix the egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, and lime juice. (FYI - If you want to make an amazing key lime pie, just mix the ingredients in this step, dump it into a pie shell and bake at 375 for 15 minutes. It's the easiest recipe ever! The pie won't be green and it shouldn't be. Lime juice isn't green.)
11. Dump the key lime mixture into the graham batter and lightly stir. Do NOT fully integrate the key lime and graham batter. You should have clumps of batter in a key lime soup.
12. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Make sure each liner has a nice distribution of key lime liquid and graham clumps.
13. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes or until top bounces back when touched.

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 - 8oz package of cream cheese (room temperature)
• 1/4 cup butter (room temperature)
• 4 cups powdered sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon coconut extract
  

1. Mix the cream cheese and butter.
2. Add the coconut extract and powdered sugar, mix well.
3. Frost cupcakes, top with toasted coconut. I put my cooled, toasted coconut in a cereal bowl, then after frosting a cupcake, I dipped it upside down in the coconut. Worked like a charm and looked great!