Lime Cupcakes

This past year's Christmas party was a Caribbean theme.  My husband made the jerk chicken and the roti and the peas and beans.  I made the cupcakes.  Coffee, rum, coconut and lime.  The lime cupcake was the big winner ... even though I made a huge mistake in the commotion of party prep.

Want to hear about my mistake?  Okay, just promise not to tell too many people.  I made my totally simple (AKA mostly boxed) lime cupcakes and I then I got busy gloating over how tasty they were.  I whipped up the lime cream cheese icing and iced the cupcakes.  Then I looked over and noticed the bag of confectioners sugar.  The unopened bag.  I had forgotten the sugar in the icing.  I basically turned my fabulous lime cupcake into a bagel by slathering it in a mix of cream cheese and butter.  

Since it was too close to party time to run to the store for more ingredients I figured I had two options.  I could scrape the icing off the cupcakes and back into the mixer and add the sugar but I thought that I might end up with crumbs in the icing.  So I opted for the more deconstructed option which meant dipping the cupcakes in sparkling sugar.  And it was great.  People loved the tart versus sweet and the creamy versus crunchy.  

As Danny Meyer says,,, the road to success is paved with mistakes well handled.

Lime Cupcakes

1 box lemon cake mix

1 box lime jello

1/3 cup oil

3 egg

1/2 cup orange juice

3/4 cup water

In the bowl of a mixer, mix together cake mix and jello.  Add wet ingredients and mix until well blended.  Pour into prepared cupcake tins.  Bake at 350 until lightly browned and springy.

Lime Cream Cheese Icing

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1 Tb lime juice

In mixer, cream together cream cheese in butter.  Blend  lime juice.  Beat on medium-high speed until fluffy.  ice cupcakes then dip in sparkling sugar.

.