Two lonely limes. Just sitting there in my produce basket. Looking back at me for over a week. Poor little limes. They felt so neglected. I could tell. I’m sensitive like that.
Those limes were originally destined for pico de gallo, or salsa, or something with a southwestern flair. I don’t know how they wound up in cupcakes in the middle of winter! I know it’s probably a totally inappropriate time of the year to be making Lime Cupcakes. I think of lime desserts for summer time, don’t you? But those little limes just needed some lovin’ so here’s what I did with them.
Luscious lime cupcakes with a lime and cream cheese frosting. Click To Tweet
To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350. Line your muffin pans with 12 paper liners and set them aside. Zest and juice the limes.
By the way – do you have one of those microplane zesters? It’s the best and easiest way to zest a lime. Or a lemon or an orange for that matter. If you don’t have one, run right out and get yourself one today. You’ll thank me later.
Whisk both the flours together in a medium bowl and set it aside for now. Beat the butter in a large bowl until smooth. Then add the sugar and beat it until blended. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the next 3 ingredients. Don’t worry if the batter looks sort of curdled at this point. That’s okay. See the photos below. The one on the left is before the flour and buttermilk were added.
Beat in the flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour.
Spoon 1/3 cup of the batter into each liner. Isn’t that the prettiest lime green? These cupcakes bake up to a slightly golden color on the outside, but the inside – wow – beautifully limey. Bake until a tester inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, approximately 20 to 25 minutes.
Cool in the pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the pans and cool them completely.
For the frosting, beat all the ingredients together in a medium bowl until smooth. Spread or pipe onto cupcakes.
Enjoy!
Lime Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup self-rising flour
- 1 stick butter, room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 1/2 tblsp. fresh lime juice
- 1 tblsp. finely grated lime peel
- 13 drops yellow food coloring
- 2 drops green food coloring
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
Frosting:
- 1 8-oz package cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 stick butter, room temperature
- 1 tblsp. finely grated lime peel
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Instructions
Cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 350.
- Line muffin pans with 12 paper liners.
- Whisk both flours together in a medium bowl.
- Beat butter in a large bowl until smooth.
- Add sugar and beat to blend.
- Beat in eggs one at a time, then next 3 ingredients (batter may look curdled).
- Beat in flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour.
- Spoon 1/3 cup batter into each liner.
- Bake until tester inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, approximately 20 to 25 minutes.
- Cool on a wire rack in muffin pans for 10 minutes.
- Remove from pan and cool completely.
Frosting:
- Beat all ingredients together in a medium bowl until smooth.
- Spread or pipe onto cupcakes.
Notes
-- Recipe adapted from Bon Appetit.
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More cupcake recipes you might enjoy:
- Snowball Cupcakes from Baking A Moment
- Sangria Cupcakes from The First Year
- Easy Apple Pie Cupcakes from Inspired Taste
- Chocolate Mint Cupcakes from Simply Recipes
Just another sign that Spring is on it’s way! YAY!!!!!
Hope so! I’m so tired of this long, cold winter. I’m a warm weather girl for sure.
I just adore cupcake, yet I never seemto bake them. they are my food porn, this recipe just might make me try and whip some up
Give them a try, Kathy. They’re so easy and, for me, it’s great portion control. One cupcake always seems to satisfy, but just one slice of cake, never!
Those looks YUMMY! Do you think lemons would work?
Sure! I think they’d work exactly the same way. I’d probably leave out the food coloring for them, though. Or not. Maybe you’d like red or blue with your lemon, huh? :-)
yep, something to set your teeth into to wish for summer fun … a wonderful cupcake…
Awesome cupcakes. I bet those limes were excited to be used in something else besides salsa, then again salsa is good, too. I could go for some lime cupcakes right about now.
Ah, lime. Another flavoring of the gods. I recall a “celebration of life” dinner at FBC Albany. Each table was decorated by the hostess differently and a signature dessert was prepared to go with the theme. You were there, right? Remember, my table was pink flamingos. However, I digress. One table chose a beach theme, and served lime sherbert, out of the carton. After all, don’t you think of lime sherbert at the beach?? Love the photos, love the cupcakes. Please bake some for me.
Miss P
They look scrumptious. Wish I was there to sneak a bite.
Since none of the lime cupcakes survived to see the sunrise…We loved them! We just sat down and ate them until they were gone.
Uncle J and the girls
I have 4 limes just waiting to be used. And I love cupcakes, so this should work out well.
They look deliscious.
SO. BEAUTIFUL. Look at that gorgeous lime green colour. You are a culinary baking genius!
Yummy yum yum! Lime is a favorite any time of the year.
What is the point of the food coloring? Just to make it lime colored? This is just like Denny’s neon green “key lime” pie. Not necessary!
Yes, the food coloring is to enhance the green color. Leave it out if you don’t want to use it.
Thanks! Always looking for ways to make things more natural, but I wasn’t sure if less liquid would make a difference.
This recipe is fabulous!!!!!! The best lime cupcake I have ever made. It will be well loved in our home. Even my daughter that “hates fruit” loved them. Thank you so much for sharing it! I don’t know if you get comments from old posts, I just had to say thanks.
Thanks, Jennifer! I’m glad you like the cupcakes. They’re one of my favorites, too.