Key Lime Cupcakes

I'm like a boutique cupcakery without the boutique :) These were made specially for my sister-in-law's birthday and I took them to her at work as a surprise. I was really happy to have given my best cupcakes ever as a gift to someone special. So... I'm usually pretty humble about my cupcaking, but not about these because not only did they taste amazing, but they were really darned cute too. I came up with the decorating idea all on my own and they turned out even cuter than I thought they would which is unheard of for me. I'm not an artsy kind either, so trying to work with fondant for the first time was a little frightening to say the least (if you aren't making the fondant limes, the cupcakes still look super cute without them. Just skip to the bottom for the recipe and how to decorate). Which is why I bought pre-made fondant. I wanted to make sure I could make something that looked alright and if it was worth it to pursue... and yes, it was. So once I use up all of my premade fondant, I'm going to start making some marshmallow fondant. But for these, I used the Wilton pre-colored fondant (I made the fondant decorations the night before I made the cupcakes):

Aaaaaannnnnnndddddd nut cups!! I've been wanting to make cupcakes in nut cups for so long and I finally did it!! More about that later... here are some pics of my fondant work:

This was the fondant I used. Notice how dark it is before kneading...

And this is the fondant after I kneaded the crap out of it. It's slightly lighter than it was straight out of the package. And I have a few sore muscles from kneading it because it was a little tough to knead at first, but it really wasn't that bad at all. I also realized that I really need to get a fondant mat because kneading this on wax paper was really not a good idea. BUT, I didn't want to dye my beige countertops green so I had to improvise and use the wax paper. Hubby and I just ordered a new kitchen island with a granite counterop so I'm going to try to knead some fondant directly on that to see if it works. With the leftover fondant, I experimented with combining colors and dying it with icing color gel so I now feel more comfortable making my own fondant and coloring it.
To make the fondant limes, I rolled out the fondant and used the measuring cup from a bottle of medicine (thoroughly washed, of course) and cut out little circles of the dark green fondant. Since there are so many things in a typical household that can cut out a circle, I don't see the point of buying circle fondant cutters. Anyways, I cut each dark green circle in half and set them off to the side. I then took the bottom of the measuring cup to cut out slightly smaller circles from the light green fondant. I then cut each of those circles into triangles of varying sizes- about four or six triangles per circle.

To assemble the fondant pieces, all you have to do is brush the pieces that you are going to bond together with a little bit of water, gently press them together, and let them dry. However, I realized that I didn't have a brush! While debating about how to go about doing this, I dug into my makeup bag and found a little brush that came in an eyeshadow compact that I never used. After confirming it was completely clean, it officially shed its title of eyeshadow brush and earned the title of "fondant brush." Here it is, in all its glory:

I then assembled the "limes"

I scored the light green wedges with the back (non-sharp) edge of a paring knife (which is what I used to cut the circles into the wedges) in the center of each triangle as an afterthought and I think they made them look a little more realistic. So that, my friends, is how you make fondant wedges Shortcakes style.

Now for the key lime cakes. I used a recipe I found on Cook Eat Share:
Ingredients: (makes about 16 cupcakes)
1 3/4 cup cake flour*
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 tbsp key lime juice*
1 tbsp key lime zest*
green food coloring
3/4 cup buttermilk*
1/2 tsp vanilla extract*

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt three times and set aside. Beat butter until smooth and creamy, then add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add one egg at a time, beating in between to combine. Add lime juice, lime zest, food coloring, and vanilla extract and beat until combined(mixture will look curdled). Add flour mixture and buttermilk in the following order: 1/3 of the flour mixture, 1/2 of the buttermilk, 1/3 of the flour mixture, rest of the buttermilk, then the rest of the flour mixture. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. I used nut cups instead of cupcake liners, which made them look extra cute, but they were also a little difficult to open. However, these cupcakes, being a little higher in sugar content than the average cupcake, shrunk a little bit. So the nut cups were perfect because they held their own shape. So when the cupcakes shrunk, there was no issue with wrappers peeling away from the cake. So even though they're tough to open, I'll use them again in the future for cupcakes that will probably shrink.

*I didn't have cake flour on hand and was shocked to find that my local Publix doesn't carry any. BUT, I made my own by mixing all purpose flour and corn starch. Since the recipe called for 1 3/4 cup of cake flour, I did the following: put 2 tbsp corn starch in the bottom of a one cup measuring cup, then filled the rest of the measuring cup with flour. Then, I put one tbsp of corn starch in the bottom of a 1/2 cup measuring cup, and filled the rest with flour. Another 1/2 tbsp of corn starch in a 1/4 cup measuring cup and filled the rest with flour. And voila! Cake flour substitute.
*I also probably used a little more than 2 1/2 tbsp of key lime juice. I added maybe another 1-2 tsp of it but I didn't measure.
*I don't know exactly how much lime zest I used, and it wasn't key lime zest but just persian lime zest. I zested one lime and added that into the batter without measuring to see how much I actually had. When it comes to an ingredient like this that won't affect the chemistry of the cupcake and affect the texture, you don't have to be super exact with the measurements.
*We all know I'm obsessed with using sour cream in a cupcake but for once I resisted temptation. I haven't ever used buttermilk in anything before, but I will definitely use it in a cupcake again. It was almost like milk and sour cream mixed together, which is typically what I use in my cupcakes. However, my local grocery store only sells buttermilk in a quart size bottle and I can't see wasting that much buttermilk each time I bake, so it won't be a common fixture for my recipes. But, I did use some of the buttermilk tonight to make some Irish Soda Bread and it was perfect :)
* The original recipe didn't call for vanilla extract but I thought it would be a good addition to smooth out the flavor. It was probably a really good idea because they tasted wonderful.

It's best with these to not fill them too full. The ones that were filled a little more full didn't rise much and spilled over a bit.
For the key lime cream cheese frosting:
I used a recipe I found on open source cupcakes but tweaked it a tiny bit:

Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
8 oz cream cheese
2 tbsp key lime juice*
1 tsp lime zest*
4-5 cups confectioner's sugar (about a one pound box)
Yellow and Blue icing color gel

Beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth (but don't overbeat!). Add the lime juice and lime zest and beat until combined. Add the confectioner's sugar about a cup at a time and beat slowly until desired consistency is reached.

*I used probably about 3 tbsp of lime juice because I felt the flavor wasn't as intense as I wanted it to be. Once again, I didn't measure the amount of lime zest but I used about 1/2 a lime's worth of zest. To color the frosting, I first colored it yellow and then added little bits of blue slowly until it was a very pale yellowish green, just like real key lime pie. Even though I wasn't piping the frosting, I still made it a little stiff so it would sit nicely on top of the cupcakes.

To decorate:
Spoon a dollop of frosting on top of each cupcake and spread evenly. Use the flat back of a butter knife to edge the frosting if the frosting extends too close to the edge of the cupcake.

Crush graham crackers in a small shallow bowl, and press edge of frosting into the crushed graham crackers to look like a pie crust.

They're already cute as is! Then put some of the leftover frosting in a piping bag with a small star tip and pipe a small star into the center of each cupcake. If you aren't using the fondant limes, they still end up looking like mini key lime pies at this point... maybe garnish with a small curl of lime skin or leave as is:

If using fondant limes, place one lime at an angle on the star of frosting and enjoy how cute they look before devouring them...