Pumpkin and Spice

The Florida Keys are well known for a lot of things- Jimmy Buffet, Ernest Hemingway, drinking, gorgeous weather, drinking, fabulous fresh seafood and of course... Key Lime Pie! Being a sugar-fiend, I was determined to try as much Key Lime Pie as I could!

Just about every restaurant and bakery in the Keys serves Key Lime Pie, and they all claim to have "the best pie in the Keys!" It would be an impossible task to try every pie in the Keys- I mean, even with the help of Mom and Kyle, I only averaged one slice a day... and I always managed to be full whenever we passed a stand that sold chocolate dipped Key Lime Pie on a stick. Oh, well. I'll have to try that next trip!

It's that time again! This month's Iron Cupcake challenge was basil. It was a little tricky, I'll be honest. I don't usually think of basil as a cake ingredient. I like it in desserts, but I usually use it in a sorbet or sauce. (Blueberry basil sauce is like heaven on lemon sorbet!)

After some thought, I decided to use the flavors of basil and lemon. To me, basil is a light, summery herb, and lemon is like sunshine in fruit form! Of course, with such light flavors, I thought the cake should be equally light, so I did an angelfood cupcake!

I love citrusy desserts, especially when they retain a bit of that tart citrus bite. Lemon meringue pie, lemon curd, lemon-poppyseed muffins, and of course, Key lime pie. Key lime pie is everywhere here in Florida, and (as of 2006) is actually our official state pie. (I guess it was a slow week in Tallahassee.)

Key limes differ slightly from regular limes. They are significantly smaller (a little smaller than a walnut), have a thinner skin, and are slightly more sour. They grow on bushy, thorny trees, which means they aren't widely farmed, and outside of Florida, are hard to find. (Heck, they're hard to find even in Florida- here your best bet is to befriend someone with a tree in their yard.) If you don't have access to Key limes, regular limes are perfectly acceptable. However, that juice that comes from those little plastic limes is not! Juice your own limes- it builds character!