Margarita Cake Balls

I made these recently for a friend of mine's birthday who likes A)  Mexican Food and B)  Lemon 'Stuff.'  These would be cute for a Fiesta Themed party.   I made a key lime/lemon cookie/cake ball that turned out to be really delicious (said the girl who doesn't like lemon-which is how I know it's tasty).  

I bought some lemon flavored cookies (you can buy the kind with the cream in the the middle, this pretty much works the same as oreo truffles).  I crushed up 1 cup of the cookies using a blender (doesn't have to be totally sandy, but pretty small chunks), and then I mixed in half a thing of softened cream cheese and about 1/4 t. lime flavoring.  

I mixed it all together...

Then I rolled it into balls (this made 10 balls, so use the whole bar of cream cheese would have made 20). I put these balls into the fridge to harden a bit (so it would be easy to roll in melted chocolate, I left it over night, but an hour or so would have done the trick).    

 I rolled these in melted white chocolate and added some 'festive' sprinkles...it would have been cut to stick with the green theme as well.  One trick....I roll these in chocolate with a fork, tap the fork on the side of the dish, add the sprinkles (these harden quickly when the melted chocolate hits the cold ball), and then I scoot it off the fork with the side of a knife.

I added these to a little margarita glass I bought at the dollar store.  

 I printed a little tag....

 ....ate all the cake balls that wouldn't fit (oops) and delivered the rest.  :O)

Chipotle's Lime Rice

 I love, love, love Chipotle's lime rice.  I've also found this is one of the few carbs I can eat before I run and not get sick.  Umm...what happened to carbo loading.  When I found a recipe for the rice on skinny taste, I decided to try it out.  OK, actually, I tried out a recipe for this rice a year ago, and whatever that recipe was didn't work for me, but this one was ooober good.  I currently have cilantro living in my backyard in a pot....that won't last long, but for now, I pretend I'm a gardener who can cook like a restaurant chef.  Make believe is a healthy skill to possess, right? 

Chipotle Cilantro Lime Rice

*adapted a bit
1 c (uncooked) rice, prepare as instructed on the bag (I just use a rice cooker, it's the only way I can cook rice without a black layer on the bottom). 
Toss rice with juice of 1/2 lime, 1 t. salt, 3 T fresh, chopped cilantro, 2 t. vegetable oil. 

Saint Patrick's Day: Key Lime Pie

I'm not a huge fan of lime, but this pie makes me change my mind.  It...is...so...good.  Since it's lime, and lime is green, this counts as an appropriate dish for St. Patricks' Day...and every other day in between. 

This is my friend Debbie's recipe, and trust me when I say, that information alone is enough to move this up any list of dishes to try.  She's a fabulous chef.  I decided to make it in mini versions to give out as gifts, but it works in any and every form. 

Keebler Sells these in six packs, and the following recipe will fill up about nine of these pie shells.  I'm going to type up the recipe as one whole pie. 

Key Lime Pie Recipe

Ingredients:  1 1/4 c. graham cracker crumbs, 1/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar, 1/3 c. melted butter, 2 (14 oz each) cans sweetened condensed milk, 1 c. fresh Key Lime juice (this took about 30 little Key limes/one bag), 2 egg whites, 1/4 t. cream of tartar, 2 T. sugar

Instructions:

1.  Combine first 3 ingredients.  Press into a 9 inch pie plate.  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes until lightened browned.  Cool. 

2.  Stir together sweetened condensed milk, and lime juice until blended. 

These were little stinkers to squeeze, but aren't they cute?

3.  Pour into prepared crust. 

4.  Beat egg whites and cream of tartar on high with an electric beater just until foamy.  Add sugar 1 T at a time.  Beat until sugar is dissolved and the meringue forms soft peaks (this took me about 4 minutes). 

5.  Spread over the filling. 

6.  Bake at 325 for 25 minutes.  Chill for at least 8 hours before serving.  I bagged and bowed these up as gifts...mostly so I wouldn't eat them all!  YU-UM!



Margarita White Chocolate Coconut Key Lime Cupcakes

Once upon a time, a really yummy cupcake....

...realized something was missing in it's cupcake life.
I picked up this margarita glass at the Dollar Tree and thought maybe they could be friends, since the cupcakes base fit so nicely inside the base, it seemed to be going well.

They imagined their future together as the dessert course at one of my parties....they talked about how many cupcake taquila shot babies they were going to have....but then....I remembered....I like to be destructive, and this relationship wasn't going to work out.
I cut up two cupcakes, chopped and placed one in the bottom of a cup, added 4 T of filling, another layer of cupcake, a heaping helping of chocolate lime icing, sprinkled the edges, and a lime wedge. And my cupcake and I have not been the same since then.

...and they all lived happily ever after. In other news....
First...let me say I'm not a big fan of lemon or lime flavored desserts. Citrus and I just don't have much of a friendship going, but I needed to make a lime dessert (to be explained in a minute) and I must say I'll definitely make these again. I lime green heart these....especially the icing...it appears I'm developing quite a love of icing...or rather, fostering the love that already exhisted. Now on to the meat of the post.
I recently went to visit my pal Carla (more on that tomorrow), and the rest of the family in Austin in honor of her daughter's birth. I brought a trunkload of gifts. It's sort of my MO. None of my friends are surprised when I arrive with too many things, they just clear off the tables when I head down the road. I like to craft, my friends are my excuse for continuing this 'hobby.' I made some tamales for the family. I decided I wanted to add a dessert to my offerings, and since it was May, and May was all about cupcakes for me, I began researching some ideas for a cupcake that would compliment my tamales. I decided to find something Margarita-ish. I found a recipe for Key Lime Cupcakes on Hoosier Homemade. These cupcakes had a whipped cream topping, and I love icing, so I decided to use this as the base, and move forward with an icing recipe. I found a really yummy White Chocolate and Lime icing recipe on FoodTV. I also decided to simplify my life and use a boxed cake mix. I combined all these fun finds to see what I could come up with.
CUPCAKES:

I halved a white cupcake mix, and added 1/2 of shredded cocount to the mix before baking. I made 8 'full' cupcakes (I measure the batter with a 1/4 c. scoop). Bake as directed.
FILLLING: (This is the exact recipe from Hoosier Homemade)

Beat (for 2 minutes) together 1 small pkg (4 oz) vanilla instant pudding with 1/2 c. whipping cream, 1/4 c. lime juice, 4 drops green food color, 1/2 c. powdered sugar. Let rest for 3 min, and then place in fridge.
I decided to use these as a filling, so I cut a cone shape out of the cupcakes. I found it was best to go pretty deep to weight the bottom down b/c the cupcakes are a little top heavy otherwise.) Fill cupcakes with filling, and then place lid back on cupcake.

ICING: (From a foodnetwork contributer...LOVE it!)
Melt 5 oz of white chocolate and set aside.
Mix 1 stick of butter (room temperature), 3 1/2 c. powdered sugar, pinch of salt, 1/2 t. salt, 1/2 t. vanilla, 1 T. lime, and 1/4 c. sour cream. Add in chocolate just until combine.
Garnish edges with sprinkles, and the top with a lime slice.
And because no blog....or cupcake is complete with a shot of the inside, which in turns means I eat one before giving them away...

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