Key lime cupcakes filled with tangy key lime filling and topped with buttercream key lime frosting! So basically Key lime, key lime, and …yeah more key lime!

For full recipe see below!

What’s the “key” to key lime? …..Okay, I apologize on behalf of my horrible joke.

Now I know it’s the end of February, and Key Lime pie is more of a summer dessert, but I’m gonna be honest… January through March are the most boring baking months of the year! There are no special occasions to bake for (Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas) and no fun in season flavors to get excited about (grapefruit isn’t very exciting in the baking world…sorry it just isn’t). So I thought it would behoove our frozen winter taste buds to make something with some zesty “flavare”!

To start beat your softened butter and sugar to a pulp. I mean it…take all that anxiety from your long day and beat the living daylights out of your butter until it’s light and fluffy. If you fail to beat your butter up, you will get chunks of butter in your batter and not only does it look disgustingly lumpy, but your cupcakes won’t cook right. Now add the eggs 2 at a time to your butter and sugar. Then add the zest and juice. … the process of zesting and juicing your limes requires some finger muscles unless you have some fancy tools.

Next sift your flour… I know this sounds like a lot of work but it will help your cupcakes be lighter.

If you are opposed to this much work just lightly spoon the flour into your measuring cup and level off.

Mix your flour, salt and baking powder together in a separate bowl.

Now to make sure you have a good consistency in your cupcakes alternate adding your dry ingredients and your milk to the butter, sugar, eggs, and lime mixture. (So add 1/3 of the dry, then ½ of the milk, then 1/3 of the dry, then the rest of the milk, and then the rest of the dry)

Scrape down the sides of your bowl every once and a while to keep the consistency even throughout the batter.

Evenly fill lined cupcake tins to about 3/4 full.

Bake at 350°F for 14-17 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then let them completely cool on a wire rack.

Put your softened cream cheese in an electric mixer …and guess what we get to do again? Beat it up … I really think baking is the most therapeutic activity on the planet… not only do you get to beat stuff up but you also get to eat thousands worth of calories once you’re done … what could be better, really?

So you’re beating your cream cheese to avoid lumpy filling. Once you have smooth cream cheese add your sweetened condensed milk and lime juice. After it is all combined stick it in the fridge for about 2 hours so that it is thicker. You may want to do this first depending on your schedule.

Next make your frosting! Put your butter, powdered sugar (sifted or else you’ll have lumpy frosting), and key lime juice in an electric mixer bowl … and mix it up! It will look like there isn’t enough moisture at first but will eventually come together. Add another cup of powdered sugar and mix until smooth. To give it that key lime-y look add 1 drop of green food coloring… ALL you need is one though so be careful or else it will look like you were going for a Christmas colored frosting.

Whoo …I’m exhausted… did I mention this may be a good project to spread out over 2 days? Even my puppy is exhausted from  watching me whip these up! These cupcakes are delicious but you definitely work for their awesome flavor!

Now for the assembly!

I would like you all to know that I do not have a very gadget-y kitchen… but I do have a cupcake corer. “What’s a cupcake corer?” you may ask! Have you ever wondered how cupcake bakeries got those yummy surprises into the middle of your cupcake? I did, so I looked it up and invested in the cupcake corer! It was only five dollars and you can get them on Amazon or a store like Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Totally worth it!

Now to use the cupcake corer follow the steps below.

Now what to do with all these little guys?

Where they went is a mystery!

Now if you don’t have a cupcake corer, I understand and here is an alternative!

To frost them I piped on frosting to make them look impressive and fancy:

But don’t worry… if you’re in a rush or are tired of standing in the kitchen this works just as well:

…and voilà!