These lime cupcakes are perfect for any summertime celebration! They’re easy to make and are a great treat to share at the end of a big barbecue or potluck. 
I have a really cute summertime dessert to share with you today! Kennedy and I first made these a few years ago when we found some cute little sugared lime gummy candies at our local bulk foods store. We knew we had to find a good use for them because they were too cute to pass up. She had a PD day that day, which is a day where the schools are closed, but the teachers still have meetings and training sessions, so she was home for the day and it was the perfect opportunity for some baking. I don’t always share all of our little baking experiments here with you, but I couldn’t resist sharing these mini lime cupcakes! These turned out so well that they’ve become a recipe that I always keep in the back of mind when I need a perfect summer treat to bring somewhere.
How to Make the Mini Lime Cupcakes
Here’s what you need!
-1 box of golden cake mix
-1 box of lime flavored Jello
-3 eggs (Or you can use chia seed eggs, the cupcakes will be a little speckled, but they look cute that way. 🙂 )
-3/4 cup water
-1/3 cup lime juice (bottled=OK. We’re not being fancy here. This recipe has cake mix and jello for goodness sake, so just use what’s easy!)
-1/3 cup melted butter
-3 or 4 drops of green food coloring
-1 cup of powdered sugar mixed with 4-ish tablespoons of lime juice (for the glaze)
-your favorite buttercream frosting recipe or canned frosting
–lime candies for garnish
Start out by dumping all of the ingredients together into a big bowl (except for the glaze ingredients and the frosting) and mix them together until smooth. If you’re using a stand mixer, mix on low for about 20 seconds with the paddle attachment and then on medium speed for 1-2 minutes. If you end up with something that looks like green slime, you’re on the right track! 🙂
Next, fill a mini cupcake pan with mini cupcake liners. This recipe will make about 72 mini cupcakes, but we just made one pan of 24 and then made the rest into a round cake that we froze for later.
Fill each mini cupcake paper about 3/4 full with batter. We poured all of our batter into a large size ziplock bag and then cut a 1/8″ hole into the bottom to make it a little easier to fill the cupcakes without a big mess.
Bake your cupcakes for about 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven. When they come out, poke the top of each cupcake about 5 times with a toothpick and then apply about 1/2 teaspoon of the glaze to the top of each.
Mini Lime Cupcakes: Secrets to Success
You can see that our glazing got a little out of control. What you see there in that photo is what you don’t want. Too much glaze will run down the outsides of the papers and make them sticky, which isn’t fun to pick up off a tray.
You really only need a tiny bit of the glaze, however it is necessary because it gives such a nice burst of tangy lime flavor. The lime flavor from the jello actually becomes quite soft and mild once it’s mixed into the cake mix so you need that extra bit of zesty-ness! I like to cool the cupcakes in the fridge to allow the flavor to soak in and for the glaze to set completely.
Once everything is cool, take a very small amount of frosting, maybe less than 1/2 a teaspoon for each cupcake and dab it on top, then place a sugared lime candy slice or other lime-themed cupcake decor on top. The frosting is really just the glue for the decor so don’t add too much because it can really overpower the nice fresh lime flavor.
And that’s it! These sugared lime mini cupcakes look so pretty on a buffet table and are the perfect refreshing little bite for the end of a big BBQ!
Here’s the full printable recipe.
- 1 box Golden Cake Mix
- 1 box Lime Jello
- 3 Eggs (Chia eggs work too)
- 3/4 cup Water
- 1/3 cup Lime Juice
- 1/3 cup Melted Butter
- 3-4 drops Food Colouring
- 1 cup Powdered Sugar (mix with 4 tbsp lime juice for glaze)
- Your Favourite Buttercream Frosting
- Lime Candies (for garnish)
-
Mix all ingredients except for the frosting, the glaze ingredients, and the lime candies in the bowl of a stand mixer until well combined. This will be about 20 seconds on low and then 1-2 minutes on medium speed.
-
Fill a mini cupcake pan (or several, this recipe makes 72-ish cupcakes) with cupcake liners and fill each cupcake liner with 3/4 full with batter.
-
Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.
-
Poke each cupcake 5 times with a toothpick and drizzle about 1/2 teaspoon of the glaze on top. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely.
-
Place about 1/2 teaspoon of frosting on top of each cupcake and finish off with a lime candy.
Do you have any other favorite lime recipes that you would use with these cute little lime slices?
More fun ideas like this!
This post contains affiliate links
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.