Kiwi and Lime Cupcakes

I love to bake but need to lose a lot of weight, and with my wedding coming up that's a pretty good incentive (though I'm not managing to do very well!). I'm trying to indulge my love of baking without indulging myself, and make things for other people to eat. A good way to do that is to use ingredients I don't actually like!

We had some kiwi fruit left over in the fruit basket at work one Friday so I took a couple home. I was going down to Dorset for my wedding hair and makeup trial, and thought it would be a nice touch if I baked some cupcakes. A bridesmaid and I went to the house of the hairdresser - a beautiful cottage in a pretty little village - and the makeup artist joined her there. We did the trial in her kitchen watched by two dogs and a cat so it wasn't like I was taking cakes to a busy beauty salon - it was a nice homely way to spend the day.

 

I had a massive tub of Stork for Cakes in the fridge so had a look at the Bake with Stork website and found this recipe for coconut, lime and kiwi cupcakes. I wasn't sure if I still had any creamed coconut in the house so decided to leave it out; I didn't even know dried kiwi existed so I left that out too. I chopped up the flesh of two kiwi fruit and stirred that in to the cake batter, which I found made the cake really light.

I didn't have any Midori either so added some lime juice to the buttercream frosting, which I piped in very satisfying little swirls on the cupcakes and topped each one with a little piece of kiwi. I don't normally eat kiwi at all but I tried a little bit of one cupcake and found the taste wasn't overpowering and it was a really light, bouncy cake and the icing was great too. The hairdresser and makeup artist seemed pleased with them too and asked if they could take a couple for their kids!

I'm sharing these with Treat Petite, hosted by Kat at The Baking Explorer and Stuart at Cakeyboi as their theme this month is Easter and Spring. The vibrant green colour of these cakes makes me think of spring and the zesty flavour might be quite welcome amid all the Easter chocolate!

Tea Time Treats, hosted by Jane at The Hedgecombers and Karen at Lavender and Lovage has the same theme so I'm also sending these to that challenge.