Vanilla Cupcakes with a Lime Alternative

This weekend I checked out The Cupcake Diaries from the library. It's written by the owners of Georgetown Cupcake in Washington, DC. I was not a fan of the cupcakes in the store - I was more of a Baked and Wired girl - but they had a chocolate cupcake recipe that I've always liked making (just the cake, not the frosting), so I was curious about some of their other cupcakes.

I tried the basic vanilla.
2 1/2 cups of flour (I went a little shy on the flour, it was more like 2 1/3 cup)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
8T unsalted butter at room temp
1 3/4 cups sugar (also went a little shy on this)
2 eggs at room temperature
2 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
seeds for 1 vanilla bean (I had half on hand so I used it, and then added an extra 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla)
1 3/4 c milk (the recipe called for whole, but I used 2%) at room temperature

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Sift together the dry ingredients and set aside in bowl or on wax/parchment paper.
3. In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. (I beat the sugar on it's own for a minute or two before adding in the sugar). When it's light and fluffy, add the eggs in one at a time.
4. Add the vanilla extract and vanilla bean seeds to the milk.
5. Add a third of the dry ingredients into the wet sugar/butter/egg mixture. Wait until it's incorporated,  then add in a third of the milk mixture until it is incorporated. Repeat 2 more times.

6. Scoop the batter into a lined cupcake tray. You can use an ice cream scoop for consistency, but I aimed for 2/3 full.
7. Bake for 16-18 minutes. Every one's oven is different, mine took the full 18, almost 19 mins. But start checking at 15 mins. It's ready when a toothpick comes out cleanly.

8. Let the cupcakes cool on wire racks.  I was able to make 18 cupcakes from this batter.

I decided to go with the Vanilla Cream-Cheese Frosting. 

4 T unsalted butter, room temperature

4 cups confectioner's sugar. (not surprisingly I went shy on that because I don't like overly sweet frosting. It was more like 3 2/3 to 3 3/4 cup).

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 oz. room temp cream cheese

Put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and, using a stand mixer or hand held mixer, mix away until it is to the consistency of your liking. I went long and it got it really nice and smooth.

I did split the frosting. Half I kept vanilla, but with the other half I added in the zest and juice of 1 lime. (If i had and extra half lying around I would have added that) to make a lime cream cheese frosting. I did add a little extra powdered sugar here to  to help absorb some of the juice.

The vanilla cupcakes I decorated with sugar sprinkles and the lime I kept plain, but you could see the zest of the lime in the frosting, which I think was quite nice.

All in all, it was a good cupcake.