These cupcakes are filled with a sweet key lime filling and topped with key lime buttercream…what could be better than that? Oh, how about a graham cracker crust on the bottom of the cupcake? This dessert is as close to key lime pie as you can get…without it being a pie! (printer friendly recipe)
INGREDIENTS: (makes 24 cupcakes)
Filling:
- 1 cup key lime juice (a labor of love….!)
- 1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
- 1 egg
Cupcakes:
- 2 cups of graham crackers (finely crushed)
- 3 Tablespoons of butter (melted)
- 1 boxed yellow cake mix (plus water, oil and eggs to make according to package)
Frosting:
- 2 sticks (8 oz) salted butter (at room temp)
- 2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter (at room temp)
- 3 cups of powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 Tablespoons of key lime juice
DIRECTIONS:
Filling:
- Mix together key lime juice, sweetened condensed milk and egg and pour into a small casserole.
- Bake at 325F degrees for 15-20 minutes (until center is set)
- Cool completely.
Cupcakes:
- Mix crushed graham crackers with melted butter.
- Spoon about 1 teaspoon of this mixture into 24 cupcake liners in muffin tins (you’ll have a little left to garnish with at the end)
- Press crumbs firmly into bottom of cup (I find my Mini Tart Shaper
to be very useful for this)
- Make cake mix according to box, and divide batter equally between the 24 cupcake liners.
- Bake according to directions on box
- Remove from oven and cool completely.
- Core cupcakes (I love my Cupcake Plunger
– it is so quick to use and saves the core to place back on top of the filling- to see a picture of how it works, click here).
- Spoon cooled filling into a zip top bag and clip a corner off.
- Pipe filling evenly into each cupcake, saving about 1/4 of a cup of filling to drizzle on the top at the end.
- Place top of core back in place (you can trim some of the bottom off to make room for the filling if you need to)
Frosting:
- Place butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and 2 Tablespoons of key lime juice into a large bowl.
- Using a mixer, beat on high until light and fluffy.
- Pipe frosting on top of cupcakes and drizzle remaining filling on top.
- Sprinkle with remaining graham crust crumbs and ENJOY!!!!
My thoughts: I created these for a graduation party. The challenge was to create a key lime cupcake for someone who LOVES key lime pie. Key lime pie is one of my favorite desserts, so it was a fun task. These were a big hit. I love the balance between the tart center and the sweet cupcake and frosting.
It’s spring~ you NEED a key lime cupcake!!!
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EASYBAKED 
These are making my mouth water! Yum! Can’t wait to give them a try. Thanks for sharing!
You’re very welcome!
I just saw Key Lime cake in a boxed mix for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I almost bought it, but was afraid it might be too strong a flavor. I had no idea what kind of icing to frost it with either. I should have known my favorite baker, Ruthanne, would come up with the perfect recipe! :o)
I just saw that mix yesterday- and orangesicle flavor too- oh my. I’m excited to try them both- just to see how they taste. So many things you can do with cake mix…orangesicle cookies? It might happen…lol. Thanks Robin!
These look heavenly! And you are brave for juicing all of those little limes! Hopefully you had an automatic juicer and didn’t have to do it by hand!
Thanks Carrie…all by hand! I just don’t juice enough to have an automatic one. It was worth it though!!
Wow do those cupcakes look good. Beautifully done!
Thank you so much!!!!!
I couldn’t imagine a more perfect cupcake for the approaching summer! These look perfect and so citrusy-sweet 😀
Thank you 🙂