Key Lime Frosting (or Citrus Frosting)

These are great to go with coconut key lime cupcakes!  This recipe was taken from Elana's Pantry, and as usual, I modify to my liking and add my own comments to help you better make things that she doesn't always say in her recipes.

In any recipe of Elana's where she has agave nectar, I will substitute with xylitol, stevia, or maple syrup.  Xylitol is a sugar alcohol that does not spike the insulin levels.

My cupcakes aren't as pretty, as I just piped the frosting from a sandwich bag, rather than using a pastry tip

Ingredients:

• 1 pint heavy cream (you can also use whipping cream)
• 1/2 cup xylitol powder (I used crystals and then put in a coffee grinder to make into a powder)
• 1/4 cup lime zest (you can also use the zest of grapefruit, oranges, lemons)

Directions:

• Chill a large stainless steel bowl in the refrigerator for about 30 min.  I use the KitchenAid mixer bowl.
• Take the stainless steel mixing bowl out of the frig and place the heavy cream into the bowl, and gradually increase the speed of your mixer to the very highest speed (or to whipping speed if you're using a hand mixer).  
• Whip cream until stiff peaks form.  How you tell if you have stiff peaks is if you hold the beater upside down with the cream, that you get big peaks that are stiff holding.  If you don't get this, keep beating, but this has to be on a high speed.
• Once you get the stiff peaks, add the xylitol (or other sweetener . . . Elana uses agave nectar, which I will not use), and lime zest using a spatula, fold these things in.  You don't want to continually keep beating this.  If you don't want to use a spatula, then mix it on low speed only until mixed.
• This frosting is speckled with the citrus zest and looks beautiful!