Key Lime Cheesecake Cupcakes

By Vicky Nardone

I decided that it was time for another round of cupcakes.  I was going to make pina colada ones but when I went to the store they only sold huge containers of pineapple juice and they were completely out of coconut extract.  When I was browsing in the juice section, I noticed that the were selling Key Lime juice.  I had gone on a vacation to Key West when I was a sophomore in college and one of my favorite things there was the many varieties of key lime pie.  I believe Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville has a cheesecake version of it and theirs was my favorite.  I have a favorite cream cheese icing recipe that I used in my chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes so I figured I could make an awesome key lime cheesecake cupcake.

I ended up cutting this recipe down and only making a third of it, which yielded 18 mini cupcakes.  Here is the full recipe though.

Cupcake Ingredients

• 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 and 2/3 cups of sugar
• 2/3 cup of shortening
• 1 cup milk
• 3.5 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 5 egg whites
• 1/4 cup of key lime juice

If you have never used key lime juice, this was what the bottle that I got looked like:

When I visited Key West I brought a bottle of key lime juice home with me

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Either grease  or use cupcake sleeves in a set of cupcake pans.
2. In a bowl or kitchen aid mixer bowl, beat all ingredients except egg whites.  When those ingredients are mixed, add the egg whites and beat everything together until every thing is well mixed.
3. Spoon the batter into cupcakes tins and bake 20-25 minutes for regular size cupcakes and 10-15 minutes for mini cupcakes. 

When I made the chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes, I didn't use wrappers because Matt doesn't like them but since he probably isn't going to eat these and I didn't want to spend all day peeling them out of the cupcake tins, I used foil holders this time.

Icing Ingredients

• 1.5 sticks of butter (softened)
• 1.5 packages of softened cream cheese (12 ounces)
• 1.5 cups confections sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon of key lime juice
• 2 drops green food coloring
• 2 drops yellow food coloring

Instructions
Mix all ingredients together using either a stand mixer or a beater.  Use either a knife or a cupcake decorator to put the icing on the cupcakes.

 

I'm trying something new today and posting this post in a linky party.  Here's the site for the linky party: