For the first year ever, we have a citrus tree that is happy and producing copious fruit. Our Bears Lime sits in a half-barrel in a little heat pocket in front of the garden shed, and it is absolutely dripping in deliciousness right now. 

Lime is not a fruit I’m accustomed to having on hand. Limes often cost up to $49/kg in the grocery store, so to have an overabundance of them makes me feel like I’m incredibly wealthy.

Naturally, we’re putting lime into everything, sweet and savoury. A few weeks ago, I picked up a new cookbook, Bake Your Sweet Time, by Tat Effby. In the book is a key lime pie cake that I made a couple of weeks ago, in a bout of stress baking while dealing with the demise of both our vehicles within days of one another. It was excellent, and it got my brain spinning about the combination of cake and lime curd.

So on the weekend, I made lime cupcakes, filled with lime curd, and topped in a buttercream frosting.

Oh. My. God.

For days, I’ve been living in anticipation of the next time I can legitimately eat one of these delicious morsels. It’s taking all my willpower not to live on cupcakes alone, with these in the house.

Here’s the recipe, in case you have an overabundance of limes, too. Or even if you don’t. These might be worth spending $49/kg for limes.

Lime curd (make this at least a few hours ahead of time):
Combine in a medium saucepan:
3 large eggs
1/3 cup sugar
grated zest of 1 lime

Add:
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
3 Tbs butter, cut into cubes

Cook, whisking, over medium heat until the butter melts and the mixture thickens. Simmer gently for a few seconds, then remove from the heat.

Stir in:
1/2 tsp vanilla

Scrape into a bowl or jar, cover, and refrigerate. Keeps for about a week.

Cake (makes 18 cupcakes):
Whisk together in a small jug:
4 large eggs
60g vegetable oil
60g water

Combine in a large bowl:
200 g sugar
320 g all-purpose flour
1 Tbs baking powder
pinch of salt
grated zest of 4 limes

Add to the flour mixture:
120g butter, softened to the consistency of yogurt
60 g vegetable oil

Mix with an electric mixer on low until it looks like damp breadcrumbs.

With the mixer on high, slowly pour in half the egg mix. Beat for up to a minute, until the batter becomes thick, fluffy and lump free. Then trickle in the remainder of the egg mixture, beating until smooth.

Spoon the batter into paper-lined cupcake tins. Bake at 160℃ on fan bake (or 180℃ if you don’t have a fan bake option) for 22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Take cupcakes out of the pan and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Frosting:
200g softened butter
1/4 tsp vanilla
2 cups icing (confectioners) sugar
1-2 Tbs hot water

Cream butter until light and fluffy. Add vanilla. Gradually beat in sugar, beating until smooth. Add just enough water to achieve a piping consistency.

To assemble:
Using a knife, 2 cm round biscuit cutter, or cupcake corer, cut a well in the centre of each cupcake, leaving plenty of cake around the edges and bottom so the cupcakes don’t disintegrate. Fill a piping bag fitted with a large round tip (or a small zipper bag with the corner cut off) with lime curd, and pipe each cupcake well full to the top with curd.

Fit a second piping bag with a large star tip, and fill it with frosting. Pipe frosting onto the top of each cupcake. The frosting does need to be piped on, because if you try to apply it with a knife, the curd mixes into the icing.

Because of the lime curd filling, I recommend storing these cupcakes in the fridge. Microwave individual cupcakes for 10 seconds to return them to room temperature before eating.

Enjoy!