Key Lime Pie Cupcakes

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I truly thought I'd want to post more when I bake but clearly that hasn't happened.  It takes so much to remember to take pictures throughout the whole process.

On that note, I had a friend request key lime cupcakes for his birthday.  A google search turned up this site, which had Key Lime PIE cupcakes.  Hello, perfect!  I took a trip to Wegmans, in Frederick, as I have had trouble finding key limes at Giant and the Wegmans website said they carried them.  What did I learn from my google search for key limes? (Clearly, I love Google)  If they are grown in Florida, they are called key limes. The same variety grown in Mexico are Mexican Limes.  Good to know, since once I got to Wegmans I only found Mexican limes.  Anyway, I decided to post this process on here since the original poster didn't have step by step pics and I thought some people might be interested in seeing this.  Also, it makes it all seem super easy.

First up, I mixed the ingredients for the crust.

 

Then placed a tablespoon of crust in each of 24 cups.  I had leftover crumbs and assumed the recipe would only make 24 for everything (more on this later) so I evenly divided what was left and got about another teaspoon of crust in each of the 24 cups.

Then I used a shot glass (if you know me, you know I have many.  This one is from my favorite Mexican restaurant) to flatten out the crust before baking.

All brown and crispy.

Zesting the limes for the batter.  LOVE limes.

 Adding sugar to the butter and lime zest.

the butter, sugar, lime zest.  Looks so creamy, no?

 Add eggs one at a time.

 Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts,

 alternating with the wet--start and end with dry.  I may have actually done 4 parts dry to 3 parts wet, but it doesn't matter.  Just make sure to start and end with dry.

 An ice cream scoop of batter gets put on top of each crust.  Here's where I ran into a problem.  I filled the 24 crusts I had...and had leftover batter.  I was too lazy to make more crust so I just put the batter in more cups.  It made 16 more cupcakes. 40! How I managed to make that many more than the original poster is beyond me.  Some of the comments on her page have shown others made a lot more too, but what did we all do differently than her?  I filled them actually fuller than she says to so that can't be it.  In the future, I might actually fill them to the top--they didn't quite make it to the top once they baked and cooled.

 Now for the lime curd.  Since I had so many cupcakes, and was unsure how much curd I would need, I tripled her curd recipe.  This ended up being too much but I would rather that than run out!  Whisk the eggs.

 Whisk in the sugar.

 Whisk in the lime juice, then start the burner.

 Once it's warm, whisk in the butter a little at a time. Continue to stir until it's thickened.  I think this whole process took me about 12 minutes.

 Pour the curd through a fine mesh strainer and place it in the fridge until ready to use/eat.  I definitely licked anything that had curd left on it once I placed it in the bowl. It was so good.

 When you are ready to assemble, use the cone method (linked on the original post) to cut out the centers of the cupcakes.  She says to discard. What did I do? Eat them with leftover curd on top. Clearly, that was after I finished making everything.

 I did not spoon the curd in the holes--I found it so much easier to pipe.  They did make a cute pointy top on them though...

 

So I used my shot glass again, this time dipping the bottom in a glass of water and flattening out the top of the curd. Redip the glass after about every 3 or else they start to stick to the glass and not flatten.

Making the whipped cream--I seriously love fresh whipped cream. And having a stand mixer makes the whole process of making it EASY. Put in the ingredients (after freezing the bowl and whisk to make it easier) and walk away for a couple minutes.

I piped the whipped cream on top as it was suggested, leaving the curd visible in the middle.  They turned out DELICIOUS.

Strawberry Pie in a Vanilla Cupcake

My first post! I have thought for quite awhile about starting a blog for my baking and I just haven't done it until now. This is the perfect way to start too--I took a bunch of pictures along the way of making these cupcakes to show off my process. Hopefully I can figure out how to post them along with descriptions of each step.

I have been thinking for quite a while about making a mini pie inside a cupcake. My favorite fruit pie is by far strawberry so I HAD to make it. Last week, a coworker asked me to make plain chocolate cupcakes for someone else whose birthday it was. I decided this was my opportunity to make the pies inside, as extra cupcakes that she didn't specifically request. I doubled my chocolate cake recipe and made 28 plan cupcakes and the leftover batter ended up making 14 cupcakes with pies in them (I used large cups). I took them all to school and they were all gone by the time I left. Unfortunately, this meant my mom, neighbor (who spotted me some corn syrup for them) and former coworkers I saw that night missed out.

I had planned on taking today off from work as a much needed break, plus I wanted to see my former students on Valentine's Day (my school celebrated on Friday). So, I decided to make vanilla cupcakes today with mini pies inside and save one each for my mom and neighbor and take the rest to my former coworkers. This may be my favorite cupcake I have made. So delicious.
I first had to make the pies. I used my favorite recipe from the place I worked 2 summers in their Bake Shop. The difference from mine and making it there is they use lard and I use shortening. Very easy, and since it was fresh, it was super easy to roll out. I used a circle cutter of about 2 in diameter.


I formed each circle to fit into mini cupcake cups. I forked the bottom and popped them into a 450 degree oven for 10 minutes. This may have been too long. When I did them last week, I checked on them after 5 minutes by pulling them out and put them back in for 5 more and it was perfect. Not stopping in the middle, 10 minutes was too long. Try 8.


See the few that are overcooked? :(


Next, I cut up strawberries into tiny pieces and filled each crust with as many as fit. I used 1 cup of small pieces of strawberry to fill 24 crusts.


I then had to make the gelatin stuff. This involved corn starch, cold water, corn syrup, sugar and strawberry Jello. Nice and thick (the recipe said to cook on low stirring constantly for 5-6 minutes--this did not work the first time I did it. I had to cook on medium, put the lid on until very hot, then stir occasionally until clear and thick.)



Next up, I made my favorite vanilla cupcake batter. I put a rounded tablespoon scoop of batter into each of 15 large sized cupcake cups (you can see they are taller than the pan).

Then, gently placed the mini pies on top of the batter.


I then placed an even tablespoon scoop of batter on top of the pies. If there's leftover batter, I spread it between them so they all seemed even. I then baked the cupcakes until my cake tester came out clean when stuck into the side not with a pie, and the top sprung back when gently pushed, about 20 minutes.


As you can see, some didn't quite have enough batter on top as you could see the pie peeking out.

I used this recipe for my frosting. I am not a huge cream cheese frosting fan, but I liked this recipe. Also, I thought the whipped cream in it fit with the pie inside. I used my normal bag and tip to pipe rosettes ontop and sprinkled with some red sprinkles, because after all, it IS Valentine's Day.


I decided I had to eat the one whose crust you could see on the top--the pie ended up tilted. Oh well, was delicious!