Key Lime Pie Ice Cream Cupcakes

I can't quite remember when I first discovered the Cupcake Project blog but in the time that I've followed her "experimental cupcake blog" I've gotten tons of great ideas and even won two of her giveaways. Needless to say, I'm a big fan of hers as a result. She constantly pushes the boundaries of what you'd think can be done with ingredients and seems to have no fear when it comes to trying out crazy combinations and new ideas. And this month she hosted a contest encouraging the rest of us to come up with something new in the form of an ice cream cupcake. What better time of year to combine my two loves, ice cream and baked goods?

I tossed a few ideas around including turning my pretzel-stuffed banana, chocolate, and peanut butter cupcakes into an ice cream concoction but when I stumbled across a recipe for key lime pie ice cream on Pinterest the decision was made for me. Something about the sweltering heat we've been having lately calls for the tangy tartness of limes in a soothingly cool ice cream.


Although the idea of a key lime pie cupcake is hardly a novel one, I did my research to put together a recipe that combined the best elements: graham cracker base, cake with a flavorful kick from some lime zest, and a fluffy meringue-like frosting lightly toasted with the help of my handy blowtorch. Add in the tart key lime pie ice cream and I knew I had a recipe for success.

This was my first experience with this sort of meringue-based frosting and the recipe I chose did not disappoint! It whipped up beautifully into a saccharine marshmallowy cloud perfect for piling on top of the cupcakes and molding into fun shapes like this:


To make these ice cream cupcakes as easy to eat as possible, I went with the tried-and-true method of cutting out a cone and inserting the ice cream into each cupcake. I've seen other ice cream cupcakes with the ice cream sandwiched between two cake layers or on top in place of the frosting but this seemed the most efficient and neatest way to combine all of the elements and flavors. Considering how much of a mess my husband can make while eating I needed to find the least messy option here.


Not to toot my own horn but these are probably one of the top five best cupcakes I've ever made. I'm so glad I was challenged to make some ice cream cupcakes because as tasty as the cupcakes are on their own the added element of ice cream gives them another dimension of flavor and texture to complete the equation. All of the elements work perfectly together from the sweet, airy frosting to the tart, cool ice cream and the surprising crunch from the graham cracker crust. Absolutely delicious and, as I expected, a perfect treat for a hot summer day.


Note: No key limes were harmed in the making of these cupcakes. In other words, I was too cheap to splurge on the real deal and instead invested in a large bag of regular limes from my local produce market. They turned out wonderfully limey all the same but for authenticity feel free to substitute key lime juice.

Graham Cracker Crust
Recipe adapted from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

1/2 cups finely crushed graham cracker crumbs
1/8 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

1) Prepare one muffin pan with paper liners.

2) In a food processor, blend together graham cracker crumbs and sugar.
Add 2 1/2 tablespoons melted butter. Pulse a few times. If it seems like it needs more butter add the remaining melted butter.

3) Distribute evenly among cupcake liners and press to form a shell using a spoon or your fingertips.

Lime Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour

1 cup granulated sugar
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons soft unsalted butter
2/3 cup milk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 tablespoons lime zest
2 large eggs

1) Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2) In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt.

3) Add the butter and beat with an electric mixer at low speed, until the mixture looks sandy.

4) Combine the milk and vanilla and add, all at once. Add the lime zest and mix at low speed for 30 seconds, then increase the speed to medium and beat for 30 seconds. Scrape the bottom and sides of the mixing bowl.

5) With the mixer running at low speed, add 1 egg. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 30 seconds. Add the second egg, again beating for 30 seconds.

6) Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, and beat briefly, just until smooth.

7) Scoop the batter by heaping 1/4-cupfuls into the prepared muffin tin. A muffin scoop works well here.

8) Bake the cupcakes for 23 to 25 minutes, until they've domed, and are a light golden brown around the edges. They'll spring back when pressed gently on top, and a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean.

9) Remove the cupcakes from the oven, cool in pan on a rack for ten minutes. Then remove cupcakes from pan and cool completely on the rack.

10) Using the cone method cut a large cavity into each cooled cupcake.

Key Lime Pie Ice Cream
Recipe from Good Life Eats

This recipe makes much more ice cream than you'll need for the cupcakes. If you really can't think of anything to do with the extra delicious ice cream you should quarter the recipe.

1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup lime juice (you can use bottled key lime juice)
1/2 cup heavy cream
Dash of salt
1 tablespoon lime zest
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
Green food coloring (optional)
1/3 cup coarsely crushed graham crackers

1) In a large bowl, combine milk, lime juice, heavy cream, salt, lime zest, sweetened condensed milk, and food coloring if desired. Whisk to combine.

2) Pour mixture into your ice cream maker, and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. Stir 1/3 cup graham crackers into ice cream.

3) Spoon enough ice cream into each cupcake to fill each cavity. Place in a freezer-safe container, cover and freeze cupcakes about 1 hour or until ice cream is firm. Spoon the extra ice cream into a freezer-safe container, cover and freeze.

Fluffy Seven-Minute Frosting
Recipe from King Arthur Flour

This recipe makes a generous amount of frosting so feel free to halve the recipe.

2 large egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/3 cup water
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sanding sugar (optional)
A servant to clean up the sticky dishes (optional but recommended)

1) Place the 2 egg whites in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer. Beat until the egg whites are foamy and thick; they should mound in the bowl, without holding a peak. Set them aside while you prepare the sugar syrup.

2) Combine the sugar, cream of tartar, water, and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently; the sugar should be dissolved. If the sugar hasn't dissolved, cook and stir a bit more, until it has.

3) Begin to beat the egg whites, and immediately pour the boiling sugar syrup into the egg whites in a slow stream, beating all the while. As you beat, the mixture will thicken.

4) Once all the syrup is added, stir in the vanilla, and continue to beat until the frosting is thick and will hold a peak.

5) Spoon the hot frosting atop the cooled cupcakes, swirling it decoratively. Sprinkle with sanding sugar and lightly brown with a blowtorch.





The contest is hosted by both Cupcake Project and Scoopalicious so be sure to check them both out for delicious inspiration.

Strawberry Lime Cupcakes

I'm not much of an improviser. It must be the German in me who prefers to strictly follow the rules. Besides, I've found that fussy little things like recipes usually turn out best when the instructions are followed to a T. There's not much room for creativity in my kitchen!

That said, I was clearly feeling especially brave this weekend. That and I lacked the necessary oranges to make this Orange Sour Cream Cake from Baking Bites. I did, however, have an abundance of strawberries and limes that needed to be eaten before I leave for vacation. While tossing them into a nice fruit salad would have been a reasonable and much healthier option, I instead improvised (eek!) and made a few adjustments to the recipe to suit the fruit supply at hand. And you know what? It actually worked! Perhaps this marks the end of an era, an era where I was afraid to experiment or deviate from the written recipe by as little as a single teaspoon. I guess now that I have a little experience under my belt I can afford to take a few risks. I too can conquer the world of creative cupcakery!

This was also my first experiment with Swiss meringue buttercream. I've heard/read its virtues extolled with glowing praise as a far superior alternative to traditional American buttercream, the type made up primarily of butter and powdered sugar. Turns out I prefer my frosting to be sweet, which the Swiss meringue definitely was not. I wound up adding powdered sugar at the end both for taste and to thicken the mixture as I added more and more lime juice for flavor. Not sure I'll bother making it again as it leaves me with a bunch of unwanted egg yolks and requires a lot more time to make, but since I'm still searching for THE buttercream frosting recipe I may keep experimenting with Swiss meringue and traditional buttercream hybrids.

Strawberry Lime Cupcakes with Lime Swiss Meringue Buttercream

1-½ cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
⅛ teaspoons salt
½ cups unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cups sugar
1 tablespoon lime zest
2 whole large eggs
½ cups plain yogurt
Juice from ½ lime plus enough pureed strawberries to total 1/2 cup

1) Preheat oven to 350F. Line 12 cupcake wells with liners.

2) In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

3) In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugar and lime zest until light in color.

4) Add in eggs one at a time, and beat mixture until smooth and well combined.

5) Mix in one third of the flour mixture, followed by the yogurt. Mix in another third of the flour mixture, followed by the strawberry puree. Stir in all remaining flour, mixing until no streaks of dry ingredients remain.

6) Spoon into prepared liners. Bake for 18-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Makes 12 cupcakes.

Swiss Meringue Lime Buttercream
Adapted from Crispy Waffle

3 egg whites
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 sticks of butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp lime zest
Juice from 1 lime
Powdered sugar

1) Combine the sugar, egg whites, cream of tartar and water in the stainless steel bowl of an electric mixer. Bring a large pan of water to simmer, making sure that the water is at the same height as the egg whites in your stainless bowl. Set the bowl in the pan of simmering water and whisk constantly until the mixture reaches 140 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. Be careful to not curdle the egg whites– simply remove the bowl from the heat for a bit if it feels like that’s happening. Also, you’ll know when it’s getting close to 140 degrees; the mixture will be getting ultra foamy, like the top of a latte.

2) Remove the bowl to your stand mixer and beat on high speed for 3-5 minutes, until the mixture holds glossy, marshmallowy peaks. Remove the meringue to another bowl.

3) In the standing mixer, beat half the butter and one-third of the meringue until well combined. Continue to add the remaining two-thirds of the meringue a dollop at a time. The mixture may look scarily curdled at this point; adding the remaining butter a tablespoon at a time will smooth things out. (Basically, just keep adding a bit of butter at a time until the curdling corrects itself.)

4) With the mixer on low, add the lime zest and lime juice and mix until well combined. Begin to pour in powdered sugar in small increments until the frosting reaches the desired consistency and sweetness.

Enjoy!