St. Patrick’s Day Cupcakes Key Lime Recipe Cream Cheese Frosting
Who says you have to wait for summer to get a great key lime recipe together? Certainly not me! The typical key lime recipe is always for that yummy pie, right? Well, how about switching all that up and making these super yummy Key Lime Cupcakes? With St. Patrick’s Day literally right around the corner, it’s the perfect time to give these babies a go!
The hardest part? Finding some fresh key limes when they aren’t in season! Like… now. We found some key lime juice though right on the grocery store shelf! It was a seamless switch out on the key lime recipe we bought that came in an old estate sale recipe box. It was such an awesome find too! Some of those index cards were so yellow and food smudged loved it was amazing! And!! It didn’t cost a fortune like I thought it would either! Total bonus right there! There’s a key lime recipe for a glaze that goes in between the cake part and the frosting that just made it seriously mouth watering delish! It would be really easy to make this key lime recipe into a whole cake too I’d bet! If you’re a fan of key lime, I really dare you to eat just one! Ready? Let’s get baking!
Key Lime Recipe – Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
Cupcakes
- 1 Box of Lemon Cake Mix (who knew, right?)
- 1 Box Lime Flavored Jello Gelatin (can use sugar free, we did not)
- 1/2 Cup Fresh Squeezed Juice From Key Lime (or substitute with 1/3 key lime juice)
- 3 Eggs
- 1/3 Vegetable Oil (we use the much lighter safflower oil)
- 2 Drops Green Food Coloring (or more, or none, your choice)
Glaze
- 2 1/1 TBSP Fresh Squeezed Key Lime Juice (or substitute with 2 TBSP key lime juice)
- 1 Cup Powdered Sugar
Frosting
- 8oz Cream Cheese (softened)
- 1/2 Stick Butter (softened)
- 3 1/1 Cups Powdered Sugar
- 1 TSP Vanilla (extract ok, but pure vanilla way better!)
Directions:
Let me start by suggesting you do NOT use white wrappers! They tend to turn brown around the edges and for chocolate cupcakes or even red velvet cupcakes, that’s fine. It doesn’t show. But this is a beautiful pastel green key lime recipe and as you can see in the top photo, the slight brown edges on the bottom kind of ruin all the prettiness! Lesson learned the hard way. Ok, set oven to 350* and place (24 – colored) wrappers in your cupcake pans. In a large mixing bowl, beat all the cupcake ingredients until well blended. 3 minutes should do ‘ya! Divide up the batter between cups and fill (I use an ice cream scoop, it’s way less messy) Bake for about 20 mins or until the old toothpick cheat test comes out clean. Remove and place on wire rack. Before they start cooling, poke about 5-6 holes in the top of each cupcake so the glaze we’re about to make can seep in just a wee bit.
Key Lime Recipe Glaze and Frosting Time!
In small mixing bowl, mix the glaze ingredients until completely smooth. Drop a bit on top of each cupcake to cover the top portion but not touch the edges. And now allow those yummy cupcakes to cool completely so we can get to frosting! Right about here is where we had the discussion of whether we should also flavor the frosting with the same basic key lime theme. We decided no, it was probably enough with the batter and glaze. Glad we went with that, you could totally try it and let me know how that turns out too! In a large mixing bowl mix up all the cream cheese frosting ingredients making sure it’s really smooth and fluffy. LOVE fluffy frosting!! And, decorate anyway that makes your little heart sing! We went with some simple green sprinkles but those jellied lime candies would be so awesome!! Maybe if they are in season, grate some key lime peel and sprinkle that on top!!
Ethan loved them because they are an awesome combo of sweet and tart. Grandpa shared some with co-workers and they were a huge hit over there too! What will you be making special for St. Patrick’s Day dessert? Share and spread the yummy goodness with me M’kay??
These look AWESOME! I will have to make them for my mother in law..she loves key lime and is always looking for a good recipe.
YUM! I’m allergic to citrus but keylime is my hubbys favorite! Maybe I can talk to into sending him some? hahaha
That looks good and I’m not one to typically like lime anything. Love your pictures.
Those look amazing! YUM!
Oh my goodness. Yumyumyum. Hubby and I both love Key Lime and this would be a fabulous recipe to make any time of year!
My sister-in-law LOVES key lime. These would make an awesome surprise for her as a Mother’s Day gift.
Mmmmm, they sound positively scrumptious!!!
I am seriously ready to lick the computer screen. I have to remember not to visit my favorite blogs when I am hungry and waiting for dinner to be ready. I bet they smell delicious too. Good thing there is no scratch and sniff over the internet.
These look SO yummy! I love key lime and the glaze idea is fabulous! I think I have most of the ingredients! I’ll have to make these soon!
BB’s sooooooo making these! How perfect with café! Ok si, everything goes well w/café, but these would be PERFECT with café! Can’t wait to try it. Gracias y BB2U
Those look amazing! And I love cream cheese frosting.
Those look delicious. My frosting never comes out that good!
These look delish. I have been craving key lime pie since the summer.
yum and so pretty! GREAT tip about the wrappers btw! I wouldve never thought of it!
Those sure do look delicious!