The Gourmet Mama

I’m rather obsessed with limes, I’m afraid. I have at least a dozen in my fridge at any given time and since it’s impossible to find lemons in Guatemala, I use limes in everything.

While on a mad baking spree the other evening, I decided to make cupcakes. But not just any cupcake would do, no, it had to be something special. So, of course, I thought of limes. What could be better than a lime cupcake? The blend of sweet and sour in a cake . . . perfect! I’ve turned lemon loaf into cupcakes before but I wanted these to be light and fluffy and, well, zingy. And they were.

We ate these suckers up without any icing, but I imagine a light lemon or lime glaze would only improve them. Or perhaps a little sprinkle of sugar on top. Mine were gone entirely too fast to think about garnishes, though, I was lucky to get this photo of the final three in the morning when the light was good again!

Orange-Lime Cupcakes

Makes 12

2 cups sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) margarine
2 tsp. orange extract (if you can’t find it, use orange juice instead)
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
3 cups flour
1/2 c. lime or lemon juice
3/4 c. water

Preheat the oven to 350°. Put muffin cups in the tins.

Blend the sugar and margarine together and beat in the eggs and extract. Add the water and lime juice and mix well, then incorporate the dry ingredients.

Mix until smooth and fill muffin tins. Bake for 30 min. or until a toothpick stuck in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Be careful not to overbake!