The Craft Begins

There’s a great bar in the town that I used to live in that has a dart board in the basement.  It’s a really popular place to hang out on the weekends, so there’s always tons of people there, writing all over the walls and ceilings in the chalk that they give you to mark your score.  Most of the time these sayings and signatures get written over or erased, except for one.  Above one of the dartboards, someone has written “cupcakes on your mother”.  For whatever reason, I always thought that was hilarious.

I’m kind of obsessed with baking cupcakes.  You can make them so fun and colorful and garnish them with silly things and they’re basically like edible happiness.   So I decided I’m going to write a little cupcake cookbook.  Not with a real publisher or anything, and I might just publish it myself, but it’s fun for me to make up recipes and then bake the cupcakes and photograph them and then of course, eat them.  Above we have Jimmy Buffet cupcakes with cream cheese icing and Maple Spice cupcakes with brown butter icing.  Yum!

What is your favorite kind of cupcake?

These are just the thing to make you dream of tropical days in the Florida Keys.  Rum and key lime juice give them their delicious flavor.

Ingredients:

2/3 c. butter

1 3/4 c. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 1/2 c. flour

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 c. key lime juice

1/2 c. milk

1/4 c. dark rum

2 tsp. finely grated lime zest

neon green food coloring (optional)

Preheat oven to 375.  In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder and set aside.  In a large bowl, beat softened butter for 30 seconds.  Add sugar and vanilla and beat until well combined.  Add one egg, beat until combined, add the second egg, and beat until fluffy.  Add flour mixture and the rest of liquid ingredients alternately, beating until well combined.  Add enough food coloring (optional) until it’s nice and key lime green.  Pour batter into lined muffin tins/baking cups and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

I like to combine this with a little bit of butter icing (1/3 c. butter, 4 1/2 c. powdered sugar, 1/4 c. milk, 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla – beat until fluffy) and top with a bit of shredded coconut for a true tropical feel.