Thursday, September 2, 2010

Lime Cupcakes - Baking Contest Attempt #1

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So I didn’t win the cupcake contest at the DC “State Fair” (bummer!), but I still think these cupcakes are really delicious.  Maybe the judges didn’t like my non-traditional use of tulip papers, or maybe they aren’t fans of citrus or maybe I’m just trying to make myself feel better….  At any rate, if you like lime (or even if you think you don’t – ahemmm JM!) you should try these cupcakes.  The fresh fruit taste mixed with the cream cheese icing is quite a tasty combination.

As for the contest – this definitely won’t be my last – who wins on the first try anyway, right?!  Check out all of the DC State Fair follow-up here:  http://www.moderndomestic.com/2010/08/the-dc-state-fair-a-sweet-success/  See if you can spot mine in the pictures of the cupcakes…

Ingredients:
Recipe adapted from http://www.lanascooking.com

1 cup AP flour
IMG_14803/4 cup self-rising flour*
1 stick butter, room temp
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 1/2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tbsp finely grated lime zest
13 drops yellow food coloring (I used 2)
2 drops green food coloring (I used 1)
3/4 cup buttermilk

Icing:
1 8oz package cream cheese, room temp
1 stick butter, room temp (I used 6 tbsp)
1 1/2 - 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp finely grated lime zest
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp lime juice (my addition)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line muffin tin with 12 paper liners.  Whisk both flours together in medium bowl.  Beat butter in large bowl until smooth.  Add sugar and beat until blended.  Beat in eggs one at a time, then beat in the lime juice, zest and food coloring (batter may look curdled).  Stir in flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour.  Spoon 1/3 cup batter into each liner.  Bake until tester comes out clean - about 18-25 minutes (depending on your oven).  Cool on a wire rack in pan for 10 minutes, then remove from pan to cool completely.

For the icing, beat all ingredients together in a medium bowl until smooth.  Add powdered sugar until icing reaches your desired consistency.  Spread or pipe onto cupcakes.

*Note about the self-rising flour – In my test run of these cupcakes, they came out very dense.  Turns out that even though my bag of self-rising flour was not expired, the baking powder in it was dead.  After consulting with my favorite peeps, King Arthur Flour, they gave me the breakdown of how to make my own.  To make 1 cup of self-rising flour, combine 1 cup AP flour, 1 ½ tsp baking powder and ¼ tsp salt.   If you don’t need a cup, then you do the math J  After making my own concoction, my cupcakes came out nice and fluffy!

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1 comments:

Beth said...

Those sound AMAZING! I think the state fair baking contests are strange. Last year, we saw that the cake winner had just made the Hershey's chocolate cake (using the recipe from the back of the can!). WHAT?
And I love the tulip papers :-)

~Beth