Recipe: Key Lime Cupcakes!

Watch my video on Key Lime Cupcakes here! :)

Yesterday was my mom's birthday so I baked her one of her favourite pies...in cupcake form!  I knew my sister was going to bake her cake and do a pretty fantastic job at it with which I couldn't compete so I went with my trademark -- cupcakes! :)

These were actually featured on my cupcake calender from Sam for the month of May.  Each month you get a different cupcake recipe...it's such a good idea!  Yet this is the first one I've tried from the calender and I think they worked out really well.  They look a lot fancier than they are so don't worry if you're not good at baking...if I can do it, so can anybody!  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

(For the cupcakes)

1 cup or 2 sticks of butter (226g) softened

1 cup sugar

2 cups self raising flour 

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

(For the filling)

14 oz can condensed milk (about 400ml)

1/3 cup key lime juice (I used the juice of two limes)

(For the meringue)

3 egg whites

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/3 cup of granulated sugar

Method:  

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F/176 C.  Line muffin tins with 18 cupcake cases.  

2. Add all the ingredients to a large bowl and beat with an electric whisk until all combined.

3. Spoon out the mixture into the cupcake cases and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

4. When they're done, remove from the oven and let sit in tins for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack and let cool completely.

5. For the filling, combine the condensed milk with the lime juice in a small bowl.  Cut off the tops of each cupcake and make a little hole in the middle.  (You can save the "hats" and put them back on after or not, I didn't.)  Fill the cupcakes with the filling.

6. To make the meringues, beat the cream of tartar with the egg whites till soft peaks form.  Then add 1/3 of the sugar and beat for 1 minute, repeating until all the sugar is added.  Spoon or pipe the meringue on top of the cupcakes.

7. Set your oven to 450 F/230 C and pop the cupcakes back in the oven for 5 minutes so that the meringues get lovely and brown around the edges.

That's it!  Buon appetito! :)

Cupcake decorations and cases are from Meadows & Byrne.  Let me know if you try this recipe out -- it's super delicious and went down a treat with everybody! 

Stay Stylish!