Key Lime Avocado Cupcakes

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have an extreme love for Spanish cuisine. I cook it all the time at home, once, maybe even twice a week. Avocados and lime are a staple as a garnish or part of what ever dish I happen to be making. Now that I've begun this cupcake challenge against myself, I thought I'd put those ingredients into a cupcake. John looked at me like I was nuts when I said I was going to make these today. Gave me a sort of, "ugh I'm gonna have to eat this and it's gonna be gross" kinda look. But I swore to him that it was going to come out good. How could it not, right? We love both those ingredients. How can adding sugar and baking them make it bad?! What's even cooler, I subscribe to the Food Network Magazine and this month they had a feature page on avocados! A whole list on how to use an avocado a day and in many cases it said to substitute avocado for where you'd use butter instead. I had been wanting to try this cupcake for a week now and after reading that article, it finally pulled it together for me on how I'd actually do it. Here is what I did:
1 whole ripe avocado, pitted 
2 tbsp butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 tsp key lime juice
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 cups AP flour
1/2 cup milk
I beat together the butter, avocado and sugar until smooth (it was seriously a gorgeous texture and color, the mixture reminded me of a custard)
Then I beat in 3 eggs, the vanilla and the lime juice, then the baking powder and flour. I added the milk at the end. It came out such a pretty green color, almost pistachio-like. I was really surprised about this b/c secretly, I was expecting a gross puke-like color. But no it was really pretty. This batter made 12 cupcakes
I baked them at 350 for 21 minutes. They came out gorgeous and fluffy- kinda looked like muffins actually.

(I recognize that I really need a camera and that my cell phone is not taking the best pics)


To top these cakes I made a Key Lime Whipped Topping:
3 tbsp softened butter
2/3 cup vegetable shortening
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup key lime juice
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
I wish I had fresh limes at home b/c I'd of liked to use their zest as a garnish on these too, but I used a lil' bottle of pre-squeezed key lime juice instead. So I opted to top with green sugar. Still pretty cute and the icing is sweet but definitely has that tartness from the lime- exactly what I wanted!