Lemon Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Let me start this post by stating, unequivocally, that I HATE CAKE MIXES. It truly saddens me that for many Americans (sorry... Canadians too... sometimes I forget I live in Canada!), cake mix cakes are the only form of homemade cake they will experience. This is a tragedy. Once you try a real, made-from-scratch cake (or better yet make one yourself!) you will immediately see the difference. Compared to a homemade cake, cake mixes taste insubstantial and artificial.

This recipe uses a cake mix as a base. I wasn't sure I wanted to include it in this blog, but I started thinking about the direction I wanted the blog to go, and I think it will fit in. I want the recipes I share with you to be two things: uncomplicated and amazing. These lemon cream cheese cupcakes are certainly both-- cake mix and all :)

So, on that note, here we go.



First, gather your ingredients. You will need:

1 box white cake mix
1 99g box of lemon Jello pudding mix
1 cup water
4 egg whites
2 tbsp vegetable oil

And for the frosting:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 block of cream cheese
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla

As with any cupcake recipe, the first things you do are preheat the oven (350 degrees) and prep a cupcake pan with liners. I, personally, adore mini cupcakes. I have three sizes of cupcake pans (mini, regular, and "Texas size" as the store amusingly labeled it), but I make the minis as often as I can get away with. So, here I will be using the mini cupcake pans.



Besides... aren't these liners adorable? They go perfectly with my lime-green decorated kitchen.

Once you're all prepped, pour the cake mix and jello pudding mix into a large mixing bowl.



Add the water, vegetable oil and egg whites. For the record, if you're nervous about separating egg whites and yolks, don't be. There's a simple way. Break your eggshell in half, hold it over the bowl and sloooooowly pour the solid yolk from one half of the eggshell into the other. The white will slide away and down into your bowl, leaving the yolk in the shell.



Et voila!

Beat with electric beaters until the batter is creamy. It smells AMAZING, and looks beautiful.



I'm going to interrupt here to say something... one of the big perks about not being pregnant anymore is that I can eat cake batter again without running the risk of exposing my baby to salmonella. I'M still exposed to it, but frankly, for batter this good, I'm willing to take the risk.

Anyway!

The easiest way to get the batter from the bowl into the adorable liners is by using a small cookie scoop, like this one:



Makes your job a hundred times easier.



This batter will easily make 24 regular-size cupcakes, or 48 minis.



Oops... unless you're like me, and get a little carried away with "snacking" on the batter. Ahem. Let's just move on, shall we?

Bake for about 20 minutes. While they're baking, prepare your frosting. Combine the butter and cream cheese in a large mixing bowl...



Beat with an electric mixer until fluffy. I know, you're thinking "how can butter and cream cheese get FLUFFY?" But trust me, it does. You'll know.

When it is, add the powdered sugar one cup at a time, and beat in.



When it's all beaten in, add the vanilla. Once everything's combined, taste test. Frosting (as with most cooking) isn't an exact science, so yours may do better with a little more or a little less powdered sugar. You want a frosting that's stiff and holds a shape easily, but isn't too sweet.

By now your cupcakes should be done. Take them out and do the toothpick test-- insert a toothpick into the middle of one of the cupcakes. If it comes out clean, they're done.



They smell even better once they're baked.

Now for the fun stuff... the frosting. I admit, I am a totally obsessive-compulsive about frosting my cupcakes. You don't have to be that way. You are perfectly welcome to smear frosting on with a knife or spatula-- they will still taste just as good. But in case you want to see what I do:





A little warning... you will attract other members of the household.



But who can blame them? Look at how gorgeous these things are.





So... the only thing left, is to enjoy!



And trust me, you will. These are so good that I often eat the cupcakes plain, without frosting, like muffins. They aren't super sweet but have lots of flavour. And, as you can see, they are super easy to make. So know you understand why I was willing to put up with the cake mix to get such a lovely result. But I promise you now... my next post will be a great introduction to made-from-scratch cupcakes. They can also be super easy, and fantastic.

Just one last thing... if anyone feels inspired enough to attempt any of my recipes, send me a picture of the result and I'll post it on the blog :)

Happy eating!