Lime Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

Hi everyone! This past week was our city's spring break and I had the opportunity to be at home Wednesday-Friday from work! Man was I needing a little time off :) Not that I don't like my work, I absolutely love what I do, but sometimes you want to take a breather. Why the need to share about my past week, you may ask? Well, two wonderful things have happened: we have made huge progress towards potty-training our 20-month old daughter (super yay!!!!!!!!!!) AND my middle sister got engaged (double super yay!!!!!!!!!!). With the potty-training, well, if you have had any experience with children, you'd know that not having to change a diaper is an amazing thing. I definitely worked with my mom this last week on tips and ideas to make sure we could survive it. I must tell you, it takes an IMMENSE amount of patience and positive reinforcement to get through it. There were times I felt like giving up, but you know what? Since starting it Wednesday, today she finally started getting the hang of it and did not have any accidents! It's the little things in life, but it made me so proud to see her achieve yet another milestone in her life.

Okay, now to the other wonderful event - my middle sister's engagement! My soon-to-be brother-in-law (man that is a mouthful!) told us ahead of time that he was going to propose to my sister when she got back from her spring break from Florida on Friday evening. I told him I would make the celebratory cupcakes for this special occasion! I knew my sister likes fruity things, so I thought something fruity and sweet would be perfect. Since I had some limes at home, I searched for a recipe with limes on Foodbuzz and came across this wonderful recipe from Ryan Bakes. This recipe was wonderful: the cupcake had a nice hint of lime with the use of both the fresh squeezed juice and the zest. The frosting.... oh man, the frosting. It was strawberry heaven! So fluffy, smooth, sweet... just perfect. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it hehehehe.

*Note (7-9-11) - I modified the cupcake recipe a little bit since I made it again. Instead of milk, I used buttermilk. To counter-balance the buttermilk, I added 1 tsp. baking soda. The result? A fluffier cupcake! :D

So in honor of the newly engaged couple: to a life full of happiness and prosperity!

Lime Cupcakes:

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tsp. freshly grated lime zest

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare 2 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners. 

Blend butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 to 3 minutes); add eggs 1 at a time beating after each addition.  Sift flour, salt and baking powder.  Add dry ingredients to wet, alternating with milk. Be careful not to overmix.  Add in lime juice and zest and mix.  Fill each cupcake liner about 3/4 of the way full. 

Bake at 350 degrees about 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 


For the Strawberry Buttercream:

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup fresh or frozen strawberry puree
pinch of salt

Directions:
In a food processor place fresh or frozen strawberries and puree the strawberries until there are no visible lumps. Set aside. *Note: I chose to not pass the puree through a strainer because I like my frosting to have the strawberry lumps, but you could make a strained puree if you so choose.

In a large mixing bowl add the butter, 2 cups of the sugar, pinch of salt, and a couple of Tbsp of the strawberry puree.  On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes.  Continue to add more strawberry puree into the mixing bowl until you reach your desired amount of strawberry flavor.  Start by adding the puree Tbs. by Tbs., taking care not to add too much or your icing will be runny (which mine did a little, I got a tad strawberry-happy). Then, add the remaining 1-2 cups of powdered sugar and blend until your icing is stiff enough that it will be able to spread on your cupcakes.  If you've added too much puree, just add a little more powdered sugar to make your icing more firm.  

Cupcake and Buttercream recipes adapted from Ryan Bakes

Look at that bling!