Key Lime Cupcakes

Last week was my 36th birthday. I had big plans to try out a new restaurant with friends for lunch, then go out to dinner and dancing with my honey and friends, plus Scott gave me a hot tip about a gift all my kids had saved up to get me that I had wanted for a while and I got all excited about that. So what happened? Tessa, my 3-year-old, ended up getting asthma so I needed to stay home with her. Which brought to my immediate attention how badly my house needed to be cleaned, but it was just too depressing for me to be cleaning all day for my birthday. Then my girls had said they would make dinner, but I just didn't feel like supervising that when I would rather just eat some cereal and make things easier on everyone. Then my kids seemed like they were arguing more than usual after they got home from school. SOOOO, Scott came home from work to find me in my room, reading my latest copy of Cook's Illustrated and crying. Plus, that same weekend, I had to call my parents and tell them we couldn't go on a cruise with them that we had previously said we could. ANYWAY, long story short, I was still feeling a little sorry for myself when I logged on today to catch up on blogs that I hadn't looked at through the weekend. There's a blog I follow called Yaya Stuff. Yaya(aka Alicia) is a women who has been trying to either have a baby or adopt for the past 7 years. She also happens to be one of the funniest people ever! She posts herself doing these crazy dances for anything from getting a new toothbrush to trying to get her husband's attention(in a funny-definitely-not-questionable way). She wrote a post last week about how they had finally gotten word that a birth mother chose them to adopt the baby she was going to have. Over the weekend, Yaya posted that the birth mother had decided to rescind the adoption and keep the baby. Needless to say, she sounded crushed. Wow, let me tell you, it made me rethink my bad attitude about this past weekend. So my birthday didn't go EXACTLY as planned; boo-FRIGGIN-hoo! I mean, so what if I couldn't go out to lunch: I'm grateful to have good friends. So what if I couldn't go dancing: I'm thankful to be in good health and able to dance. So what if I had to turn down a cruise with my parents: I'm blessed to have such amazing parents. So what if I got a sewing machine instead of the automatic floor-cleaning machine that I've dreamed of: I've needed a sewing machine for 15 years. Plus, my husband took us all out to dinner when he got home, and even took me out for an "official" birthday dinner the next night, because he knows I love going out to eat. I LOVE MY KIDS AND MY HUSBAND. I even made cupcakes for my birthday, and they may be my favorite of all time. I got the recipe from Bon Appetit magazine online here. The fresh lime flavor combined with creamy cream cheese frosting is an unbelievably scrumptious combination. I had a little mishap with the food coloring, so I'm posting the picture from their website, along with the recipe. The only thing I did differently was to add a few tablespoons of Rose's Sweetened Lime Juice to the batter and one to the frosting.

These vibrant green cupcakes match the chartreuse walls at Buttersweet Bakery in Atlanta. They also reflect the fun, laid-back vibe of the shop. "We call it retro funk," says owner Charlita Varner.

MAKES 12
Photograph by José Picayo

Recipe by Buttersweet Bakery

September 2008
Ingredients
CUPCAKES
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup self-rising flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lime peel
1/4 teaspoon neon-green food coloring
3/4 cup buttermilk
FROSTING
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon finely grated lime peel
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preparation
CUPCAKES
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line standard muffin pan with 12 paper liners. Whisk both flours in medium bowl. Beat butter in large bowl until smooth. Add sugar; beat to blend. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then next 3 ingredients (batter may look curdled). Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with buttermilk in 2 additions. Spoon scant 1/3 cup batter into each liner.
Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan; cool.
FROSTING
Beat all ingredients in medium bowl until smooth. Spread over cupcakes