Monday, April 25, 2011

Strawberry Key Lime Cupcakes

With the coming of spring, I was craving something light and refreshing. Sara Sara has some yummmmy super moist strawberry cupcakes, so I thought I'd try my own. Then, after sipping on a strawberry limeade from Sonic, I thought a lime frosting would go perfectly. I found two separate recipes and combined them for this:



Strawberry Cupcake:
18.5oz white cake mix
3 oz pkg strawberry Jello mix
4 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup oil
1/2 - 1 cup strawberries, sliced

Combine cake mix, jello mix, eggs, oil, and undrained strawberries. Fill cupcake cups, and bake at 325 for 18-23 min. Allow to cool, then frost with:

Key Lime Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 Tbsp key lime juice
1 tsp key lime zest
2-3 cups confectioner's sugar
Few drops green food coloring

Cream the butter, cream cheese, lime juice, and zest with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add confectioner's sugar, one cup at a time. Continue beating until light and fluffy. Add a few drops of green food coloring, if desired.

The strawberry cupcake was super moist, maybe even a little too much if that's possible! And they rose quite a bit, so make sure you don't fill the cups too full! (maybe only about halfway). The key lime frosting was the BEST part of this recipe, it was so refreshing and good... tasted just like key lime pie! As yummy as these were, I felt like the frosting overpowered the strawberry flavor of the cake - all I tasted was the lime, and not much strawberry. So I added a sliced strawberry on the top, just for looks, to trick myself into thinking more about the strawberry :)