Coconut Lime Cupcakes

These are fabulous and my new summer cupcake love! I ran across this recipe in a Betty Crocker cooking magazine and put my own twist on it. They were so yummy and really perfect for summer! I will definitely be making more of these before the summer is over. If you are not a fan of coconut, you can simply omit it. I actually made half without coconut and half with. I just added the coconut after I baked the first dozen. Both ways turned out great! If you decide to make half and half like I did, I suggest you decrease the coconut to 1/2 cup...unless, of course, you are crazy for coconut.

Coconut Lime Cupcakes

1 box Lemon cake mix

1 small box lime-flavored jello

1 1/4 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

1 cup shredded coconut

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cupcake pan(s). In large bowl, beat cake mix and gelatin with mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Add remaining cupcake ingredients (except coconut) and mix on low/med for 5-7 minutes. Stir in the shredded coconut. Fill cupcake pan with batter and bake 17 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan to cooling rack. With toothpick, pierce tops of cupcakes in several places.

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

2 to 2 1/2 tablespoons lime juice

In small bowl, mix 1 cup powdered sugar and enough of the 2 to 2 1/2 tablespoons lime juice until glaze is smooth and thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle and spread glaze over cupcakes. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

**You can stop right now if you are not a frosting person. The cupcakes will taste wonderful with only the glaze on top. They just looked so good I had to try one! However, being that I LOVE frosting (especially cream cheese frosting) I proceeded with the next step.

Frosting

1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and butter on medium speed until light and fluffy. On low speed, beat in vanilla and 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar until mixed; beat on medium speed until fluffy. Frost cupcakes as desired. Store covered in refrigerator.

I almost always use tip 1M from Wilton when frosting my cupcakes. It's so quick and easy to use and the end result is a nicely frosted cupcake. If you have kids and bake a lot of cupcakes (like myself), but don't own any tips and/or decorating bags, I highly suggest you purchase these items. They will make your life so much easier when it comes to frosting cupcakes. Not only will your cupcakes look beautiful, but people will think you spent hours frosting them.

Two of the cupcakes are frosted with the cream cheese frosting and the other two have only the glaze.

Baby's First Cake

My baby girl just celebrated her first birthday! I absolutely love first birthdays!! They are just so much fun. Of course, I had to make my baby's first cake. I had been thinking about this for a very long time and wanted it to be perfect. I went back and forth on what kind of cake to make and finally decided on something very simple and sweet. I wanted her to enjoy her first experience with cake, but I also wanted to feel good about what she was eating. So, I compromised. I made her a white cake layered and frosted with vanilla buttercream and then piped strawberry buttercream rosettes on the top and bottom. Both were made without shortening. I just couldn't give her something made with shortening...not for her first birthday. She seemed to really enjoy the frosting part of the cake, but she never really got to the cake part. I did sample it once she was finished and it was very good! The buttercreams that I made were different than the one I usually make in that they contained no shortening, only unsalted butter. I wasn't sure how they would taste, but they were great! In fact, I will be using these recipes more often than the other one. The only problem with butter only buttercream is that it can melt. It has been ridiculously hot here in Germany, and so it was a little difficult trying to decorate with the buttercream. I had to keep putting it in the refrigerator. The cake still turned out as I hoped it would, but by the time my daughter was finished with it she was a buttery mess!

Vanilla Buttercream

2 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted (I used slightly more than this to reach the consistency I wanted)

pinch of salt

Seeds of one vanilla bean

Place the butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla bean seeds in a bowl and mix with electric mixer on low speed. Increase to medium speed and beat until light and fluffy. If you are not using it immediately, store in a sealed container in the refrigerator. Bring it back to room temperature before use. It has a shelf life of up to 2 weeks if refrigerated.

Strawberry Buttercream

Same as the above recipe, except substitute 2 tablespoons good strawberry jam and a tiny drop of pink food coloring for the vanilla bean.

I Love Giveaways

I won my first giveaway a few weeks ago. Actually, my baby girl was the big winner. It was a cute handmade bib from Comfy Bummy and I won it through Facebook. I was so excited! I just love the idea of all these giveaways that businesses are doing now. I already loved Comfy Bummy for all of my cloth diapering needs, but now I love them even more! Thanks Comfy Bummy!