cupcake oh cupcake

I made some lemon-berry cupcakes for a lovely picnic we attended this past weekend at Laurelhurst Park.  And I can't... stop... thinking... about... them.  The final product was a combination of recipes, and I decided I'd share them here.  I was only able to snap a single photo with my phone before devouring my treats, so here it is:

I began by making a batch of Bakerella's Simple Sprite Cake, using lemon pudding rather than vanilla.  Now, it's usually against my beliefs to use a box of cake mix, but the exhaustion of pregnancy while parenting an 8-year old will make you do crazy things.  If you click the above link, don't feel bad if you get caught in the vortex that is Bakerella.  The woman is some kind of magical wizard in the kitchen and on the web.  Both of the recipes I've tried from her site turned out delicious and the site is very entertaining to browse.

I baked the cupcakes till plump and golden (the recipe yielded about 24 regular sized cupcakes).  As soon as they were out of the oven, I poked copious holes into the top of the warm cupcakes with a fork, then let them cool completely.

I mixed 1 cup of boiling water with 3oz. (I used half of a 6oz. package) of raspberry Jello.  Then, using a spoon, I ladeled the Jello liquid over the cupcakes until they were fairly soaked.  Using all of the liquid, I managed to cover each cupcake entirely with red.

Refrigerate these for an hour to let the Jello solidify.

Then I made a quick, light frosting by thoroughly mixing 1 cup of milk with another small package of lemon pudding.  I then folded in an 8oz. container of Cool Whip, stirring gently until no streaks remained.

I topped each cupcake with a healthy dose of lemony frosting, then garnished each with 2 rasperries and 2 blueberries.

Yum.