Key lime is a flavor I love in the summer! Key lime pie, key lime cheesecake, and coconut key lime cupcakes! The cake part of my coconut key lime cupcakes was perfected for Paleo Made Easy. Don’t have a copy? Click the paypal link on the upper right hand side of this page! In Pale Made Easy I topped the cupcakes with a paleo (of course) key lime glaze. To date my favorite topping on these cupcakes is my vegan key lime buttercream frosting, alas, that still contains confectioners sugar making it far from paleo. Tonight was an attempt at a completely new frosting, using cashews as the base. It is good and, importantly, holds up to a cupcake. I made enough frosting for at least 48 cupcakes (whoops) so you might want to scale back.
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- Paleo key lime cashew frosting (or cheesecake – vegan too)
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- Water soaked cashews
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- Paleo coconut key lime cupcakes with key lime cashew frosting
Ingredients:
2 cups raw cashews
4 cups water
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
1/3 cup + 1 tbl. organic blue agave
1/3 cup + 1 tbl. key lime juice
1/8 tsp. vanilla extract
Method:
Soak cashews in water for 8 hours. Cashews should now be plump and much larger than their original size. Drain cashews. Add drained cashews to a blender and blend as fine as possible. Add coconut oil, blend until incorporated. Add lime juice, agave, and vanilla and continue to blend until the frosting is as smooth as possible. Spread onto cupcakes and enjoy.
I used a Ninja Pro 1100 blender. There is still a bit of texture, but it looks very smooth. If you have a Vitamix you will probably achieve a more silky texture than I can with the Ninja.
Side note: Know any vegans looking for cheesecake? Try putting this mixture in ramekins and freezing it! Should make an excellent no bake key lime no-cheesecake 🙂
Delicious Primal Cooking 
I’ve been looking to try some Paleo friendly desserts and these look amazing! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Yum, these cupcakes sound delicious! The only thing I’d do different is sub honey for the agave. For frosting, I think I’d just spread on some coconut butter — it makes a great, easy frosting!
Yes, you can absolutely substitute honey for agave. I use organic blue agave because the glycemic index is lower than honey. You can also use raw coconut nectar, which has an even lower glycemic index (35, vs my agave at 39). The manufacturer of coconut nectar has a store locator on their website http://www.coconutsecret.com/nectar2.html, but I’ve found it at Wegmans.
Thanks for the info! Honey is actually the only sweetener I can use though and regardless, is my preferred choice because of it’s flavor and medicinal properties. Be careful with agave … it’s comprised of about 92% fructose, suppresses leptin (which tells you when you’re full), is hard on the liver and more. Sure it doesn’t trigger an insulin response, but it’s other effects are unfortunate, so approach with caution. See the section on agave in this post from Mark’s Daily Apple http://www.marksdailyapple.com/is-it-primal-7-more-foods-scrutinized/#axzz1zCbLpxEP
I don’t use too much agave, but it is my go to sweetener for baked goods mainly because I try to keep things diabetic friendly, so I need to not trigger an insulin response. I consider it paleo friendly because it should be used in moderation (dessert is still dessert after all, no matter how healthy you try to make it) and even though it is high in fructose your body knows what do to with fructose (fruit sugar = fructose = agave). At the same time I also agree with Mark Sisson to a certain extent. Not sure how much the antioxidants (in honey, maple syrup, molasses) that Mark talks about come into play with baking. As the pH of baked goods increases antioxidant activity is lost. Things like baking soda increase pH, destroying flavanols and antioxidant activity. I recently picked up a bag of xylitol and want to see what I can do with it. I’ve used Truvia before (stevia/xylitol blend) in baking, but it isn’t very cost effective. My goal is to try to switch everything over to xylitol (no fructose) or coconut nectar (low fructose).
All in all, there’s no one perfect sweetener, unfortunately. Yes, some are better than others, but it’s still sweetener any way you boil it down! This is a really great article as well if you want to check it out.http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-4563/What-You-Need-to-Know-About-Sugar-Agave-Nectar-Fructose.html
Thanks, I’ll check that out!