Easter Baking...Chocolate cupcakes and Key lime pie

As is the tradition at Easter, we all overindulge on chocolate a little, but when it's in cupcakes it doesn't matter...right? 

I decided to make some chocolate cupcakes to give to my neighbours, and used a recipe that I have used before, so I know how good it is! I ordered some two compartment cupcake boxes and decorated each cake with an egg or a fluffy easter chick (Unfortunately those aren't edible!) and a hand-stamped tag. 

For Easter Sunday lunch, my mum requested a Key Lime Pie which I was really excited to get stuck into. I love strong citrus flavours, especially refreshing with a hint of spring in the air, and with a recipe from a Waitrose magazine I got started. 

The recipe had crushed ginger nut biscuits (I had forgotten how much I liked those!) and butter for the base, baked in the oven until golden. The filling comprised of the zest and juice of 6 limes, a can of condensed milk and 4 egg yolks whisked together. When I put the filling into the pie and started to bake it I was worried that there would be a similar issue to the baked cheesecake experiment, but it firmed up beautifully and cut perfectly. I decorated it with rosettes of whipped double cream and lime slices, and it was the perfect dessert to a delicious leg of lamb. 

It may be tempting to bake your key lime pie in a traditional flan tin to get a nice fluted edge, but for ease of shape and to make sure that it came out properly, I used a metal pie tin which made it much easier to press the biscuit mix up the sides of the tin to create an even layer