Lime Baby Cakes
Lime Baby Cakes are dense and moist from buttermilk, and zingy with fresh lime flavor. A swirl of cream cheese frosting offers the perfect creamy contrast!
Mini Lime Cupcakes
These Lime Baby Cakes are for Mom.
For Mother’s Day, I wanted to share a recipe that I know Mom loves, but one that she doesn’t actually make for herself. (She likes to find them already made at our house!)
So whenever I make these mini lime cupcakes, I stash a few away in the freezer for the next time she visits us. It’s what any good daughter would do, right?
I hope you like these awesome little cakes – they’re also especially great for St. Patrick’s Day and Cinco de Mayo. But really, these baby cakes would be welcome at most any celebratory occasion!
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Lime cake recipe is perfect for spring!
These lime cupcakes have my mom’s name written all over them. Not only are they green, one of her favorite colors, but they’re also bright with citrus flavor.
Because I wanted all that vibrant green color to show through in the most maximum way possible, I knew I wanted to forgo paper liners.
So I found these awesome silicone cupcake pans for this recipe. The individual cups in the pan hold just a bit more than my other mini cupcake pans – and I love this bit larger size!
Ohhhhhh, to go back in time. I smile at this photo.
This picture was taken on Mother’s Day when I was five years old (I’m in the red dress).
Notice the flowers on Mom’s lapel. Dad always gave Mom a corsage of fresh flowers to wear to church on Mother’s Day morning. I always liked that my dad did this, and anticipated seeing what he would bring home for her to wear each year.
These vibrant green cupcakes are fun, ultra tasty, and completely addictive.
The buttermilk in the batter makes the cupcakes dense and moist. And with real lime juice and zest, they are zingy with fresh citrus flavor.
And I don’t think I need to sing the praises of cream cheese frosting too loudly, as it seems most people are already fans. But the creamy frosting is the perfect contrasting topper to the brightness of the cake. They work marvelously together.
Lime Baby Cakes are perfect for a smaller dessert
I first made these for a friend’s party where a selection of smaller 2-bite desserts was served. The original recipe is for regular size cupcakes, however, I adapted it to make “baby” cakes for this occasion.
The little cupcakes went over so well that first time, I’ve never made them any other way.
This recipe has been a popular one on the blog, but especially so around St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, and springtime in general. Of course, I always think of them at Mother’s Day.
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Lime Baby Cakes
Ingredients
for the baby cakes:
- 3.5 c. all-purpose flour
- 2.25 tsp. baking powder
- ¾ tsp. kosher salt
- 1 c. unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2.5 c. sugar
- 4 large eggs at room temperature
- 5 T. fresh lime juice
- 2 T. finely grated lime peel – I use this zester
- neon green food coloring – I use this set
- 1.5 c. buttermilk
for the frosting:
- 8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
- 1.5 c. powdered sugar
- ½ c. unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 T. finely grated lime peel
- ½ tsp. pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- For the baby cakes: Preheat oven to 350° F. A couple notes: I prefer to use flexible silicone mini muffin pans with no paper liners for this recipe, but you can also prepare metal mini muffin pans with paper liners. I use these silicone muffin pans, which yield a little bigger mini cupcake than most – which I like! Sizes of mini muffin pans vary quite a bit, so your yield and baking time may vary. I set the silicone muffin pans on sheet pans, for sturdiness.
- In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat butter until smooth. Add sugar and beat to blend. Beat in eggs one at a time, then the lime juice, lime peel, and food coloring. Batter may look curdled, but that’s just fine. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, in 3 additions. Spoon batter into liners, about 2/3 full.
- Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean. This takes about 20 minutes for me, but it will depend on the size of your tins, so pay close attention to your baking time. Cool 10 minutes and remove from pan. Cool completely before adding frosting.
- For the frosting: In a medium bowl, beat all ingredients until smooth. With a medium-large plain round pastry tip (I like to use one that has a tip opening of about 5/16″), pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes, or simply spread it on with a knife. Sprinkle a bit of fresh lime zest over tops, if desired.
Notes
Nutrition Information:
If you liked these Lime Baby Cakes, you might also like these recipes:
- Lemon Heaven Bars – moist and chewy, with bright lemon flavor!
- Oreo Cheesecake Bites
- Lemon Bars (a traditional lemon bar, the BEST I’ve EVER had!!)
- Key Lime Coconut Macaroon Cookies from Lemons for Lulu
- Key Lime Cloud Squares from Love from the Oven
- Key Lime Cheesecake from Crazy for Crust
This post was previously published May 2010 and has been a popular recipe with family, friends, and readers. Some of the photographs and text were updated in 2018.
Do these freeze well?
Yes, they do!
I crossed this recipe looking for some tasty treat to sell at my work, and BOY, are these the ones! I love it! Instead of the frosting, I used a simple lime glaze.. Soooo good!
Thanks for sharing! Hugs from Brazil ;)
It’s a favorite around here, so glad you liked it! :)
Your key lime baby cakes would be perfect for St. Patrick’s Day! I love the color, and they sound so good! I would love if you would share this at my Get Your Blarney On! linky party. It’s all about celebrating St. Patrick’s Day! http://www.thefreshmancook.blogspot.com/2014/03/get-your-blarney-on-linky-party.html
Hope to see you there!
These are adorable! What a cute idea! I would like to include the recipe in a St Patrick’s Day round up I am hosting, I will give full credit and links back to your site, of course! Have a blessed week
do you use cupcake trays for this?
Hi Tammy – if you look in the recipe directions, I explain the kind of pan I used. Thanks!
what a lovely tribute to your mom ~ these cupcakes are soooo cute and they look so tasty! I can’t wait to try this recipe out!
I am definitely going to try out this recipe for the lime baby cake!
I love the color of them! They look fresh and vibrant. Could I ask are they soft and spongy too?
Regards,
Karl
These were very good and got an overall rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars! The only thing I noticed is that the cake turned slight brown around the edges. Why does that happen? or is it only me?
These are great! I love the color, it’s perfect for my sister’s baby shower, and she loves cream cheese frosting as well. The only problem is I don’t think she’s a big fan of lime flavored desserts. If I left out the lime and added vanilla do you think they would taste good? Sorry to be manipulating what sounds like an amazing recipe!
Hello Jaime – I do think these cupcakes would taste good with vanilla and no lime. The green color, however, doesn’t fit the flavor, but if you’re just trying to color coordinate for the shower, I think that’s reason enough to try it. If you do this, please let me know how it goes!
Oh, Brenda, these are delicious. I made them tonight to test them out for an order for this weekend because the customer had requested something “key-limeish”. These are perfect!
Yay! I’m so glad you liked them, Natalie. :)
Ooooh !!! These mini cupcakes looks so cute and super delish , love the recipe and the post :) .
I’ve been testing recipes for my sister’s wedding next June and made these for the first time today. They’re delicious! For her semi-formal reception, I think the lime green popping out from beneath the white frosting will be super cute. Thanks for the recipe!
The recipe looks awesome and I’m going to try it tonight! Question though, do you think it would work with lemon the same way, maybe just dial back the amount of lemon juice/zest used? My mom is a HUGE fan of any dessert that’s lemon and I was thinking of trying that (and coloring them yellow) for Mother’s Day…she would love how cute these are too. What do you think?
I am going to try that also, Sara. Why wouldn’t it work for lemon lovers?
these will be on every dessrt bar I do in the future! especially the purple/lime wedding in May 2013!!!! thanks
These are adorable! Love the unique color. Not one you see often in baked goods.
Thanks, Katie – so nice to hear from you! They are really fun. People are always curious to try them, and usually end up really liking them. They are a favorite around here!
Hi! I’m in love with all things Key Lime! Question: The recipe calls for lime juice. Is that a real lime, or key lime juice? I live in South Florida, so it’s really easy to get. Thanks for the fun idea!
Hi Brooke! The original recipe called for key limes. I have made it both ways, but wrote the recipe for regular limes, as they are just easier to come by up here in the north. By all means, use your fresh key limes…wish I had some out my back door, too! ;)
These are reallly cute!!! :D I love the color.
greets!
These are adorable and perfect for spring!
I made your Key Lime baby cakes for card club last night. They were yummy. Thank you for sharing the recipe. I got a ton of compliments. I think I could have eaten that frosting by the spoonful! (Okay, so I did eat it by the spoonful!)
Love those Key Lime Baby Cakes! I enjoyed the comments you wrote too, and thanks for your kind words. We got a charge out of that picture, as it brought
back a lot of good memories.