Key Lime Mini Cupcake Recipe

First we must all give a great big 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

to the hubs.

So his favorite thing for a sweet treat has always 

been Key Lime Pie.

Last year his Mom made him these amazing little

Key Lime Mini Cupcakes.

They were to die for, so I knew that would be happening again this year.

I mentioned on the Facebook the other day that I was looking for a good 

recipe and many of your said you wanted to know as well....

So here it is!

What you will need:

(makes 24 cupcakes)

cakes:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar

1 large egg

1/4 cup Key Lime juice

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

frosting:

1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla

Step 1:

Heat oven to 350° F

Line the indents of 24 mini cupcakes with paper liners.

Step 2:

Combine in a medium sized bowl:

Flour, salt, and baking powder.

In another medium sized bowl,

beat butter, vanilla, and sugar with an electric mixer 

on medium high speed for 1 minute.

Step 3:

Add half the flour mixture to the wet mixture, combine on low speed.

Then add all of the Key lime juice,

then the rest of the flour mixture.

Step 4:

Once evenly combined, 

spoon evenly into prepared liners.

Make at 350° F for 17 minutes.

Cool in pans on wire rack.

Step 5:

In a small bowl,

combine confectioners sugar, butter, and vanilla.

Beat until smooth.

Spread frosting onto cooled cupcakes.

Tip:

I also topped the cupcakes with 

Annie's Organic Snickerdoodle Crumbs.

I ran them through the food processor so that I could get an even dusting.

Yum!

10 things i couldn't live without this week

1. as i mentioned, my sister haley came to town to spend a few day with me and the boy and the hubs....and stella. we had such an amazing time together. she's always just such a breath of fresh air. we crammed a weeks worth of activities into 48 hours - there were bike rides, beach trips, zoo tours, and sushi. it was perfect.
2. although i don't want to ruin the magic of the zoo for all of you i have to say that going to the zoo with someone who's profession is zoo keeping really is insightful! i learned so much about the zoo. not only some interesting facts about the animals and the names of some of the animals that i love and new nothing about, but also some trickery that zoos pull on us commoners.  very interesting folks. very interesting.
3. this seems a little silly and vain, but i died my hair back darker after about 5 months of being a very light red head, and wanting to shave all my hair off. here's the thing with me and red hair....i love it, but unless i really take the time to color it often and style it every single day.....i hate it. so back to the dark side. and miraculously the past few days i have loved my hair again.
4. we decided on a last minute trip up to orlando to visit our family friends the weekley's. friday night after the hubs got home from work we drove up. we arrived late to find a house full of kids, not only the two little weekley nuggets, but also the hubs old high school friends and their two daughters. it was a chaotic mess of giggles and bouncing. the boy was super shy at first but in no time he was chasing the girls and eating cookies. i am pretty sure that it was the latest that he's ever stayed up, he finally crashed around midnight.
5. momma weekley and i stayed up way past our bedtimes as well. with wine in hand we swapped stories of motherhood. i love spending time with mary so much. she's one of those mom's who is totally straight up, she doesn't sugar coat parenting stories, she shares every dirty little detail in a way that usually has me laughing in ways that would make a weaker woman tinkle. you know that web sensation "shit girls say"? well i swear that someone should have been taping us because it was totally "shit moms say" and it was hilarious. and i quote..."you know what i need? i need something really cool, you know like a fanny pack! - mary"
6. saturday morning we woke up foggy eyed and early. i think all the kiddos were a bit cranky from the late night partying, but once we got them up and moving and broke the news that we were headed to sea world everyone one was excited to start the day. heck i even started it with only one cup of coffee! so this was the boys first trip to sea world and it was magic! it was such a great day of laughter, marine life, melt downs, and dippin' dots. we even scored season passes so we will be heading back i the near future. you should totally check out the hubs blog about our recent trips to sea world and the fair....awesome perspective from the mans eyes!
7. i had the most delicious cupcakes this weekend! red velvet cheese cake! and my favorite thing about them was the lack of frosting.  i convinced/forced mary to share the recipe with me so that i could share it with you....so keep your eye out for that this week!
8. i am not sure that i would have made it through the week without some phone calls and texts from my step mom/best friend. she's my go to when the boy is giving my a run for my money. she always offers the best advice on how to deal with his insanity....even if that advice is opening a bottle of wine. haha. thank you lisa for checking up on me so much this week.
9. ok so the hubs and i don't watch football (or any other organized team sports really) it's just not our deal. but for some reason last night we found our selves involved in the 4th quarter of the super bowl. well, not really for some reason....i knew exactly why i was watching it. you see the season premier of the voice was starting after the super bowl and i was so concerned that the game would run over and ruin my recording of one of my favorite shows. but low and behold i found myself cheering and screaming at the tv. i was happy to see the giants win. not that i really cared or know much about either team, but you see my grand father and cousin are the biggest giants fans....so for their sake, and the sake of their wives i was pulling for the giants. great job boys.
10. after a week of craziness and traveling i have to admit that i am super thankful for the tropical storm that we are dealing with today....it's giving me and the boy to snuggle in our pj's all day. yeah that's right....tropical storms in february.

10 things i couldn't live without this week:

1. the boy is obsessed with lizards. he calls them "dino lizards". living in the tropics for the past year has introduced me to all kinds of strange lizards. some so big they would make the average person jump out of their skin. it's no wonder he thinks they are dinosaurs. the other day, on a walk that the boy tricked me into, we caught ourselves a lizard (with a butterfly net...i won't bare hand it). not a biggie, just your run of the mill yard lizard. this was the first time i showed the boy how to catch a lizard. he was pretty excited about it. later that same day he caught his own lizard. we were in the back yard and he came running towards me with a fist full of lizard. by the time i realized what he had in his hand he had squished it so hard that it's guts were bulging out of it's side. he had no idea that he had just killed the poor thing. he was so excited and proud of his "dino lizard" catching skills, then i had to go and crush it all my telling him he killed it. ugh. but at least he now knows that he has the skills to capture and the strength to kill.

2. dark chocolate elvis cupcakes! yum! but more importantly lets talk about the beauty/danger or homemade peanut butter frosting. not only is it delicious on cupcakes, we had it on waffles, pretzels, gram crackers, you name it...i put frosting on it.

3. swim lessons started this week, and although it's nothing like last years lessons, they are still fun. my standards were set very high last year with the boys old teacher. she had been teaching swim lessons for some 30+ years, and she was awesome, by the end of last summer my one year old could practically swim on his own. our local pool has since been shut down due to budget cuts/renovations. so i was forced to find lessons else where. well the girls that are teaching him are good and fun, but i feel like his skills are digressing a bit. at least we get to be in the pool 4 days a week...it's some relief from all the heat.

4. the boy climbed a ladder at the park this week that i was scared to let him climb. but i figure i was the only one holding him back and to let him try it. it was very tall...taller than i could reach. but he did it. he's growing up so fast.

5. i had a fantastic time with brad and randi serey at their maternity photo session. these two were a great sport in the blazing sun and heat. the pictures came out beautifully and we got them done just in time, because the serey's had that baby 4 days later. congrats to you two and welcome to the world ellie....can't wait to meet you!

6. while doing the above photo shoot, i got to go on the lake worth pier for the first time. i am not really sure why i have never done this before. i think that the fact that they charge a fee to get on the pier was deterring me, but now that i know it's only $1...i can't wait to take the boy out there. we saw so many different kinds of fish, and let me stress the SO MANY. it's crazy to think that all those fish were right there where people swim. fearless. it was great being out there with someone who knows so much about fish too....i was like a little kid. "brad, what's that one? what's that? oh...look at that!"

7. the boy and the hubs had a daddy/son beach day. i love it when they go do stuff without me. don't get me wrong, i miss the fun, but i think that it's really good for the boy...and the hubs. the boy is so used to being with me ALL THE TIME, i think its a fun change of pace for him to spend alone time with daddy.

8. the boys first trip to the fire station. we stopped by the other day to just see what would happen, and the fire chief ended up giving us a personal tour. the boy got to climb up in all the fire trucks and he learned all the names and functions of the different trucks. i think he was a little confused as to why it took me so long to take him there. he loved every minute of it. he even got his very own helmet...but due to his mega-head it doesn't fit. so i have started planning out a felt fire hat for the boy...i am having a little trouble committing to starting, i am afraid i am going to mess it up. i've never made a hat before.

9. my new favorite band...boom chick! we were introduced to this band when the hubs old high school buddy called him up to make a skateboard deck for this band. we instantly fell in love with the old school surf rock feel and come on....who doesn't love a girl drummer?!?!?

10. i finally decided on a design for some floor pillows that i have been wanting to make for the play room. i have been crunching numbers and converting measurements (because inevitably the tutorial i found is in german). now the fun part starts...deciding on fabric.