Cherry and Lime Cupcakes

These Cherry and Lime Cupcakes are filled with homemade jam and lime zest. Topped with light, fluffy frosting, they are the perfect balance of tart and sweet.

Whew. Happy Tuesday friends. We are in the midst of a heat wave here in the UK (we don’t get those very often) and I am really feeling all the berry and citrus flavours!

These Cherry and Lime Cupcakes make your taste buds sing with their homemade cherry jam centre and lime frosting. However, these might be one of the last oven recipes to come out of my kitchen for a while! Making dinner yesterday with the oven on almost made me melt into a puddle on the floor!

I hate to be one of those moaning Brits because it is genuinely nice to have some sunshine and not just loads of rain, but it is a bit much. Having been around 23C last week and suddenly waking up on Sunday to it being 31C – well it’s a bit of a shock to the system!

I hate it so much when I break out in a sweat just getting dressed. It would be so much better if we had a slight breeze. I wouldn’t mind the heat as much then; it’s that sticky, just ridiculously hot air type of heat that I don’t like. It’s not even that humid yet, so I can only assume it’s going to get worse! 🙁

I even think I’d be able to cope if we went abroad as so many countries are set up to cope with the heat and have air con. Here we only really have air con in cars, some shops and some offices. It’s really not widespread because we just don’t get enough good weather!

Mum & Dad had air con installed in their house a few years ago and it’s bliss walking into their house! Our cat has the right idea too as she can usually be found directly under the unit in a sun beam getting the best of both worlds!

Sitting with an ice cold drink and one of these Cherry and Lime Cupcakes right now seems like bliss to me. There’s tennis on the TV and these cupcakes are the perfect balance between tart lime and sweet cherries. I made my own jam to fill the cupcakes too and topped them with a lime filled buttercream frosting.

You don’t have to make your own jam, I just had over 1kg of cherries to use and I do love the taste of homemade jam. There’s also plenty of lime zest in these incredibly soft cupcakes. I can’t even begin to tell you what a beautifully light texture these cupcakes have.

When completely assembled and with a cherry on the top, these cupcakes are just phenomenal. There may be a lot of ingredients and steps when you first look at the list, but these aren’t difficult to make and are totally worth the effort. You can make them simpler by just using store bought jam if you rather as well. 🙂

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Cherry and Lime Cupcakes

These Cherry and Lime Cupcakes are filled with homemade jam and lime zest. Topped with light, fluffy frosting, they are the perfect balance of tart and sweet.

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 18 minutes

Total Time 43 minutes

Servings 12

Author Annie N

Ingredients

• For the cupcakes:
• 1 stick (113g) unsalted butter or margarine, at room temperature
• 1 cup (200g) caster/white sugar
• Zest of 1 large or 2 small limes
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups (210g) plain/all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt, ONLY if using unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup (120ml) milk
• For the cherry jam:
• 1 1/2 cups (235g) fresh cherries, pitted and halved
• 1/2 cup (100g) caster/white sugar
• 1/4 cup (60ml) water
• For the frosting:
• 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups (300g) icing/powdered sugar
• Zest of 1 small lime
• 1/2-1 tbsp milk
• 12 cherries, for garnish, optional
• 3 slices lime, quartered for garnish, optional

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and line a 12 hole cupcake tray with liners.

2. Place the butter/margarine, sugar and lime zest into a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer and beat until light and fluffy. Around 2 minutes on medium-high speed.

3. Add in the eggs, scraping down the sides as necessary, and mix on medium speed until well incorporated and smooth.

4. Add in the flour, baking powder and salt (if using) and mix on low until the mixture begins to come together, then add the milk and continue to mix until you have a light, smooth batter with no lumps of flour.

5. Using a 2tbsp cookie scoop, divide the batter between the cupcake liners and then place in the oven for 18-22 minutes, until risen, lightly golden and an inserted skewer into the centre comes out clean.

6. Transfer to a wire rack to cool as soon as possible to stop liners peeling away from sides of cakes. Leave to cool completely.

7. Whilst the cupcakes are cooling, make the jam: place cherries, sugar and water into a medium sized saucepan over a medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Once boiling, turn down the heat to simmer for around 10 minutes until the cherries have cooked down and the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Leave to cool.

8. Once the cupcakes are cool, make the frosting: Place butter, icing sugar and lime zest into a large bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer and beat for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy. If required, add 1/2 - 1tbsp of milk. I used 1/2tbsp - you want a consistency that you can pipe through a nozzle, but will hold its shape. 

9. Place the frosting into a piping bag fitted with an open star nozzle and then it's time to assemble!: Using a cupcake corer (I used the OXO Good Grips one) or a small knife, core each cupcake. If you're doing it with a knife, cut a circle 1 inch in diameter in the centre of each cupcake and remove the centre - make sure to leave a base of cake, I normally cut 3/4 of the way down.

10. Keep the cores and cut them into 1/8 inch thick tops so you can put them back over the jam when you've filled the cupcake. discard (or eat!) the leftover centres.

11. Spoon 1tsp of jam into the centre of each cored cupcakes and then top with your reserved tops.

12. Pipe a swirl onto each cupcake and garnish with a cherry and quarter slice of lime.

13. Cherry and Lime Cupcakes will keep in an airtight container, in the fridge, for 3 days.

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