Cupcake Challenge: Week 1

Here I am looking at cupcakes on the internet, lurking in cupcake shops, watching cupcake shows on tv, I even dreamed about cupcakes this week! (I'm serious... Me, my sister and her boyfriend were all part of this cupcake squad and we were dressed like these kick butt spies with all these gadgets like headsets and stuff. And the cupcakes were beyond awesome and everyone was all "You saved the day! It's amazing!" and we were all "We know...we know...we are the cupcakes squad of awesomeness.") I'm a little obsessed with cupcakes. SO! First week into my cupcake challenge, I was rip roaring ready to go...

And for this week I chose to do one of the recipes I've been saving for summer...Cherry Limeade Cupcakes! It was going to be either these or Rocky Road, but Cherry Limeade won by vote. (Ok, so the only people who voted were me, my sister, and my brother...but hey)

 I decided to use the recipe from Annie's Eats as a sounding board, tweaking a few things here and there. You can get the recipe and see her delicious cupcakes at her blog, www.annies-eats.com. I especially liked pouring lime syrup over the cakes to give them that extra boost of flavor.

Me and John Mark split one right after they came out of the oven (we didn't even wait for them to cool all the way!) and there wasn't a crumb left. THAT is awesome because neither I nor JM actually eat cupcakes that often. We don't have big sweet tooth cravings like my mom. ;)

This cupcake was super tasty! It was very very tart, but the frosting was just the right amount of sweetness to balance it. In fact, it tasted a lot like it's namesake drink. The cake itself was one of the the moistest cupcakes I've ever eaten. It was similar to a superb pound cake.

Had to have a glass of the original, of course...

*coughcough*crazyproudofmyphotographyskillsforthispicture*coughcough*

Key Lime...

EDIT: I have put up more photos of the finished cupcake! They are mini cupcakes however, so the size of them is smaller. 

I have very few pictures of my Key Lime experience, unfortunately. My photographer was there during the baking process, but she was unable to take pictures of the actual finished cupcakes... All is well. I can always make them again and update my posts with more photos later! ;) I'll probably have to make them again anyway. I frosted them with cream cheese frosting because I had some left over...but that was a weird citrus combination. Next time vanilla butter cream will be better, I think. Cream cheese is great but as with all recipes, it can't be used in everything.

 The finished product! :)