Blueberry Key Lime Cupcakes
These Blueberry Key Lime Cupcakes are pure heaven! Soft, delicious cupcakes made with key lime zest for a beautiful citrus flavor and topped with blueberry cream cheese frosting that’s made with fresh blueberry syrup.
BLUEBERRY CUPCAKES
Seriously, I hear angels sing when I look at these cupcakes. But when I take a bite, that’s where they hit the high note!
Key lime and fresh blueberry flavors are so nice together and just perfect for spring. I love making blueberry muffins with an addition of fresh key limes. But it’s not just blueberries that lime compliments, try adding it to strawberry, raspberry and of course, coconut treats.
Any spring events you have coming up, definitely whip up some of these cupcakes. Spring break, Easter, Mother’s Day, all perfect reasons to treat yourself your family to a sweet delight.
After making these awesometastic (yea, I said it) cupcakes, I was kicking myself. It was quite painful though because I had just spent an afternoon working on landscaping and every muscle in my body hurt. But I was still kicking myself because I know better. I know what my favorite and best cupcake recipe is and yet, there are still some crazy times when I insist on using different recipes.
You’re probably lost right now, but I’m talking about one recipe in particular. I’m talking about my Maple Bacon Cupcakes and a recipe that has been very finicky. If you saw my post about Maple Bacon Cupcakes, you probably noticed that quite a few people had trouble with that recipe, so consequently, I took off the recipe until I could re-make them. I did re-make those cupcakes in two versions, an easy box mix version and a homemade version.
So the reason for the self-inflicted butt kicking is the fact that this is my favorite cupcake recipe and yet, I tried using another that just doesn’t seem to deliver as consistently. In my personal experience, cupcakes made with butter just never turn out as good as these.
There is something about the soft, whipped egg whites with sugar and oil beaten into them, that created these soft, fluffy, round-topped cupcakes. It never fails me and I really should stop trying to use the butter recipes. The moral of this slightly long story is that these cupcakes hit it right out of the park!
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Check out these cupcake recipes you’ll love:
Blueberry Lime Cupcakes from Cake Whiz
Key Lime Cupcakes from Blahnik Baker
Coconut Lime Cupcakes from Dessert Now, Dinner Later
Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes from Giraffes Can Bake
Blueberry Key Lime Cupcakes
Ingredients
- Cupcakes:
- 4 egg whites room temperature
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 cup low fat buttermilk
- Zest of 3 key limes
- Blueberry Sauce:
- 1/2 pint blueberries
- 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- Frosting:
- 8 oz cream cheese room temperature
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 Tbsp blueberry sauce
- 1½ cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Blueberry Sauce:
- Add blueberries into a small sauce pot, heating over medium heat.
- Add lemon juice and sugar. Stir well.
- Cover (leaving a crack for the steam to escape) and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring often. (Watch it closely, it may over-run.)
- Strain off some juice (about 3 Tbsp) for topping the cupcakes and puree the rest in a blender.
- Cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 350 and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.
- Sift flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder together and set aside.
- Make sure your other ingredients are ready.
- In a bowl of an electric mixer (use paddle attachment), beat egg whites for a few seconds and slowly start pouring in sugar. Beat for 3-4 minutes, until white and fluffy.
- Start pouring in oil, slowly, as the eggs are still beating on medium-high.
- Add vanilla and lower the speed to low.
- Alternating, add flour mixture and buttermilk in two parts. Mix until just combined.
- Add key lime zest. Make sure to scrape sides and bottom of the bowl and mix until all incorporated.
- Divide batter among the cupcake cups, filling them about 2/3 of the day.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes.
- Cool completely before frosting!
- Frosting:
- Beat butter and cream cheese together, on medium-high speed, until smooth, 1-2 minutes.
- Lower the speed to low and beat in powder sugar and blueberry sauce.
- Turn up the speed back to medium-high and beat for about 3-4 minutes, until the frosting is light, smooth and fluffy.
- Frost the cupcakes and drizzle blueberry sauce that you've set aside on each cupcake.
Nutrition
All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.
Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
These came out as described, nice and airy, and taste delicious. I used a handheld beater since I don’t have a stand mixer. I’d definitely recommend a 20min bake time, though, mine looked perfect after 18min but the ones in the centre of my muffin tray collapsed as they weren’t *quite* cooked through.
Some ovens can run hot so unfortunately, it is hard to pinpoint the exact cook time. I am so glad you liked the recipe though.
These are really beautiful cupcakes – and i love the flavor profile. I too found the cupcake very dense and not at all as described. Instructions say to whip egg whites using a paddle attachment, which really doesnt incorporate as much air as the whisk? Perhaps thats the problem?
I was thinking the same thing. Im going to make them tonight, I will add the whipped eggs last and hand mix them into the batter.
I am looking forward to trying this out, I was hoping to make stabilized whipped cream as the frosting instead, will the blueberry sauce incorporate into the stabilized whipped cream?
Hi there! You can definitely use the whipped cream frosting on top just be careful not to add too much sauce. Add a tablespoon of blueberry sauce at a time while whipping the cream. (I would think it will take 2 tablespoons as well.) Make sure the blueberry sauce is cold when you drizzle some more on top because whipped cream will melt fast if the sauce is warm.
Enjoy!
I made these little wonders, but I made some extra puree and before I put thhe frosting on I scooped a little hole out of the top of each cake and filled it with puree. makes them a bit messy to eat but adds to the deliciousity!
Oh yea, great flavor burst! If you give them just a few minutes to soak in, it sounds like the cupcakes would be the bomb! Thank you, Annie!
Hi 🙂 I’m in Australia and just wondering if your cup measurements are metric ie: 1 cup = 250ml? Thanks Jody
Hi there! I made these and they were great! Do you have any input regarding how long they can be made in advance? Or if the cupcake base can be frozen and thawed? Thanks!
Absolutely beautiful! I’m so excited to try these out. How many will one batch make?
Thank you so much! It makes 12. I hope you will like it!
These look delicious. Do you only use the zest of the limes? Why lemon juice instead of lime juice?
Hi there! It’s actually just a habit of putting lemon juice when cooking fruit and berries. You can definitely use lime juice. Thanks, I’ll add that in.
I did use only lime zest in the cupcakes.
I hope you will try it 🙂
These cupcakes turned out SUPER dense and the frosting tasted of mostly cream cheese, there wasn’t enough blueberry flavor, just the color…
I’m not sure what went wrong there, but they’re very light and airy cupcakes. I’m sorry they didn’t turn out the way you hoped. I hope you will give them another try. Thank you!
So lovely! And perfect for Summer!
Thank you, Ashley!
These are gorgeous!! I love how you used the blueberries in the frosting! Yum!
Thank you, Megan!
These cupcakes are so gorgeous! I love that spoon too. Where did you get it? Be fearless is a message we can all use.
Thank you so much, Laura!!
I believe that the spoon was send to be as a gift from a brand I worked with. I’ve had it for a couple of years 🙂