8.12.10 Beach Cupcakes

In my search to find a Key Lime Pie Cupcake to make this week, I came across a recipe for a "Beach Cupcake" from The Cupcake Project.  This is a graham cracker and lime cake with lime cream cheese frosting.  Overall, I'm disappointed with this recipe.  The texture is the main problem; it is incredibly dense & lacks flavor.  You catch the graham cracker taste only as an after-taste.  The icing, however (recipe below), is phenomenal.  I added lots of lime zest so that you could see green speckles.  I'm not making this recipe again, but I've posted it just in case anyone wants to try it.  Who knows, maybe it was operator error & not a bad recipe.

You'll see below that you will have 5 egg whites left over.  I hate to throw that much egg away, so I made myself an egg white scramble with feta cheese & Italian seasoning for lunch.  YUMMY!  I still had to toss some of the egg whites away, but it was a little better.

Beach Cupcakes (click to follow link)                      

1/2 C butter (room temperature)
1 C sugar
3 eggs
1 C milk
1 C flour
1 1/2 C graham cracker crumbs (about 1 package inside a box)
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/8 t salt
5 egg yolks
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 C lime or key lime juice

1. Beat the butter for about 30 seconds until creamed.
2. Add the sugar and mix for 3 minutes until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, being sure to beat for 30 seconds for each egg.
4. Use food processor or a potato masher or whatever you have on hand to grind the graham crackers into tiny crumbs and powder.
5. Sift the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking soda and powder, and salt. (I didn't actually sift the graham cracker crumbs. While mine were small, I don't think they would have fit through the sifter.)
6. Add about 1/4 of the mixture to the butter mixture.
7. Add some of the milk.
8. Continue to add the ingredients in a dry - wet - dry method, ending with the dry.
9. Mix until just combined.
10. In a separate bowl, mix the egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, and lime juice. (FYI - If you want to make an amazing key lime pie, just mix the ingredients in this step, dump it into a pie shell and bake at 375 for 15 minutes. It's the easiest recipe ever! The pie won't be green and it shouldn't be. Lime juice isn't green.)
11. Dump the key lime mixture into the graham batter and lightly stir. Do NOT fully integrate the key lime and graham batter. You should have clumps of batter in a key lime soup.
12. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Make sure each liner has a nice distribution of key lime liquid and graham clumps.
13. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until top bounces back when touched. 

Lime Cream Cheese Frosting

1 stick (8T) of unsalted butter, room temp
1 8oz. package of cream cheese, room temp (I used reduced fat)
2+ T lime juice
2+ tsp lime zest (I used almost an entire medium lime)
4-5C powdered sugar


Cream butter and cream cheese together.  Add lime zest and juice and mix well.  Add powdered sugar 1C at a time and mix until blended; the amount you use will depend on the texture and taste you desire.  I only used 4C because I wanted to taste the lime more.