My thoughts: These are some of my favorites!!!! Click on a photo to see each recipe. Enjoy!!! ~r
Tag Archives: cupcakes
Lemon Cream Cupcakes
Delicious white cupcakes filled with a lemon cream and topped with lemon buttercream and a scoop of whipped topping! Yum!!!
I love lemon- but in moderation. A dessert that is overwhelmingly lemon isn’t my favorite (which is why you see very few lemon recipes on this blog!) These are the perfect creamy mix of white cake and sweet lemon flavor though. I love them! I’ve become a big fan of putting a scoop of whipped topping in the center of a cupcake and surrounding it with a flavored buttercream. It cuts the sweetness and the flavor. These also have a creamy lemon filling that is sooooo yummy.
Ready for the recipe? Here you go. (printable version here)
INGREDIENTS:
- One boxed white cake mix with eggs, water and oil to make according to package
- One small package of instant lemon pudding (with 2 cups of milk to make according to package)
- 2 tubs of Cool Whip topping (frozen)
- 2 sticks of butter (softened)
- 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons of lemon extract
- Yellow food coloring
- Lemon drops and sprinkles (optional for decoration)
DIRECTIONS:
- Make cake mix according to package and bake in 24 cupcake liners placed in a muffin tin. Cool completely.
- Make pudding mix according to package. Spoon about 1/3 cup into a small zip-top bag and set aside.
- Add 1/2 of one container of Cool Whip, to remaining pudding, mixing until well- combined. Place in a zip-top bag and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, beat butter, powdered sugar, lemon extract and yellow food color together on high until light and fluffy. Place in a zip-top bag with a circular decorating tip inserted into one corner. Set aside.
- Remove a core from each cupcake. You can use a knife or a cupcake corer to do this, but save the top of this core.
- Clip a corner off the pudding/Cool Whip mixture bag and pipe this into the center of each cupcake, setting the top of the core back on when filled.
- Use a medium cookie scoop, melon baller or ice cream scoop to spoon a rounded ball of frozen Cool Whip onto the center of each cupcake.
- Pipe lemon frosting around the edges of this scoop by squeezing small circles of frosting all around the edge.
- Cut a small(!) corner off the bag of plain pudding and drizzle this over the top.
- Decorate as desired. If you use a lemon drop, add this just before serving so it doesn’t get sticky.
- Keep these cupcakes refrigerated until serving.
- Enjoy!!!
My thoughts: These are truly delicious. They are light and refreshing and just the right blend of lemon and sweet. A perfect summer dessert! I really hope you enjoy them! ~r
Other light and refreshing summer treats: (click on a photo to see the recipe)
10 Fun Dessert Recipes for Father’s Day!
Father’s Day is upon us! I love this day. I have such a great dad- he is adventurous, wise, funny and so much fun to spend time with. I’ve created many recipes here at Easybaked on his behalf, and thought I would gather them all into one little post for you!
Dads come in all varieties with all sorts of interests and hobbies. If your dad is a golfer, try the Hole-in-one Cupcakes pictured above. They use a Lindt chocolate truffle as a golf ball- which is cute and SO yummy eaten with that cupcake!
If your dad is the grill-master of your family, you might make him BBQ Cupcakes– or Hamburger Cookies– or maybe both!
He loves football??? Hopefully he loves the Green Bay Packers… the only team truly worth cheering for….!
Make him delicious dark chocolate Football Cookies, fun little First Down Oreo Pops, OR Cheesehead Cupcakes (Go Packers!) At the very least you can entertain him with stories of how you use your tire pressure gauge with that last recipe…
Maybe your dad is a foodie. He loves his bacon and doughnuts! We’ve got both of those covered! Our Pancake and Bacon Cupcakes are actually incredibly delicious! I was skeptical- and I made them- but they got five stars in my book! We also have some pretty amazing Doughnut Cupcakes– that actually taste like doughnuts!
Finally, for the fisherman fathers out there….. Fishing Bobber Cupcakes– that use Lindt Truffles as an adorable bobber on waves of blue icing- and Fishing Pond Cupcakes– stocked with little goldfish crackers!
That makes 10 incredibly fun, unique and delicious recipes! But I need to add one more… in honor of my dad, who spent his life working in a medical laboratory and literally spent an hour this morning over breakfast telling me all the horrible things they used to have to mouth-pipette back when he started in the profession in the 1960’s… (like formaldehyde… as one of the less nasty things…)
For you dad…(and all scientist dads out there!) Toxic Sludge Cupcakes! These are unbelievable delicious… that green goo is white chocolate pudding and it is SO good inside these cupcakes… makes me smile 🙂
Happy Father’s Day! I hope you have a chance to bake some sweet treats to celebrate your dad this weekend! ~r
Dad and my sweet puppy this morning **smile**
Some of my dad’s other favorites through the years:
Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes!
These delicious orange cupcakes have a white chocolate cup of vanilla ice cream in the center! Just like everyone’s favorite Orange Creamsicle frozen treats! Summer is coming…. you need these frozen cupcake treats!!!!
Confession: I hate all things orange flavored.
Confession: I was making cookie dough cupcakes for a party last week and I accidentally grabbed an orange cake mix instead of a chocolate cake mix at the store. I’m not sure how you do that… but I did. I had to rush to the store for a chocolate cake mix and then I was stuck with this orange one…. and I hate…hate…hate orange.
My dad suggested a Creamsicle cupcake and I went for it. Turns out, everyone else in the world LOVES orange Creamsicles- so it all worked out.
I knew I wanted ice cream in the middle, but I didn’t want a soggy cupcake. Solution: the fun chocolate bomb mold that I’ve been raving about and using on cupcakes whenever I get a chance! Best kitchen gadget ever! I used the mold to make little white chocolate cups to hold the scoop of ice cream on top. Perfect!
Here’s how I put these fun little desserts together: (printable recipe)
INGREDIENTS:
- One box of orange cake mix (plus oil, water and eggs to make according to package)
- 1 bag of Wilton’s candy melts in white
- 2 sticks of butter (room temp)
- 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla
- Orange food coloring (if desired)
- Vanilla ice cream
- Cool Whip (if desired)
- Sprinkles to decorate
DIRECTIONS
- Make cake mix according to package and divide equally into 24 cupcake liners in cupcake tins.
- Bake according to package and cool.
- Make icing by combining butter, powdered sugar and vanilla in bowl and beating until light and fluffy. Color orange if desired.
- Place icing in a large zip-top bag fitted with a round tip, and set aside.
- Melt candy melts in microwave in 30 second increments, stirring between until completely melted.
- Use a pastry brush to brush candy melts inside each cavity of the chocolate bomb mold and freeze for a few minutes.
- Coat a second time (it needs to be nice and thick since we aren’t filling them before popping them out of the mold).
- Pop these cups out of the mold by peeling the silicone away. Repeat.
- Assemble cupcakes by cutting a small core out of the center of each one, pipe a little frosting into this core, and set a chocolate cup on top.
- Pipe frosting dots all the way around the edge of the cup.
- You can hold the cupcakes here until serving and do the next steps right beforehand- or do the following steps and keep the entire cupcake frozen until serving. Depends on how and where you will be serving them.
- Place a small scoop of ice cream into the center
- Top with Cool Whip, and sprinkles as desired
Enjoy!!!!!
My thoughts: Well, I didn’t try these, but I did share them and according to others, they are a yummy success! These work best if you keep them at room temp and add the ice cream just before serving. If you add the ice cream ahead of time, let the cupcakes and ice cream warm up and soften a bit before serving- otherwise they are fairly difficult to eat! At room temperature though… cake and ice cream all at once!!! YUM! Enjoy!!! ~r
Other fun ice cream desserts to try! (click on a photo to see the recipe)
Berry Bomb Cupcakes
These delicious cupcakes are topped with a dome of raspberry cream and a touch of black raspberry jam- a perfectly pink Valentine’s Day treat!
I love berries over vanilla cake- it reminds me of summer and makes me smile. I got a little creative with the presentation, but I think that makes them just perfect as a Valentine– don’t you?
These are incredibly delicious and fun to make. They use a fun (and inexpensive) silicone mold that I got here
Want to know how we made these cute little desserts? Here you go: (Printable recipe)
INGREDIENTS:
- One boxed white cake mix (with water, oil and eggs to make according to package)
- 1 large jar of black raspberry preserves
- 1 can of strawberry frosting
- 2 packets of Dream Whip
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon of raspberry extract
- 6 tablespoons powdered sugar
- Pink food color gel (to desired shade)
- 2 bags of Wiltons candy melts in bright white.
DIRECTIONS:
- Make cake mix according to package and divide into 24-28 cupcake liners placed in a muffin tin. Fill only about 1/2 full so that they bake up flat and not mounded up and over edges. Bake according to package.
- Make Berry Bomb filling by combining Dream Whip, milk, extract, and powdered sugar in a mixing bowl and blending together with mixer until stiff peaks form. Add coloring to desired shade of pink.
- Melt Wiltons candy melts and use a brush to “paint” the melts into the inside of the silicone mold. Do two layers and then freeze until hard (5 minutes).
- Place filling into a large zip-top bag and clip a corner. Pipe filling into hardened cups- about 3/4 full- and then top with a little jam.
- Use a knife to spread jam flat and freeze another 5-10 minutes.
- Carefully remove berry bombs from mold and place, round side down and sticky jam side up, on a wax-papered plate. Keep these cool until all bombs are made.
- Open strawberry frosting and warm in the microwave for about 15 seconds- just until it softens a bit when stirred,
- Spoon frosting over tops of cupcakes, allowing it to spread to edges.
- Gently set a bomb on top of cupcake, pressing it into the soft frosting (I used wax paper to touch chocolate to prevent fingerprints)
- Allow frosting to firm up and hold the bomb in place.
- Drizzle with a little red or pink melted candy melts if desired. Keep refrigerated until serving.
- Enjoy!!!!!!!
My thoughts: These are a fun and refreshing twist on a berry-topped cupcake. The bombs take a little time to make- since you have to to do them in batches of 6. I recommend you start making them when you start the cupcakes. You can be in and out of the freezer while you are baking and save a little time. My other thought- serve these with a fork!!! When you bite into them and that white candy shell breaks it is too much to hold onto. I promise. Use forks 🙂 I hope you enjoy making and eating these as much as I did!! ~r
Other Valentines Day treats to try (click on a photo to see the recipe)
Mini Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing
These cute little bites of pumpkin and sweet cream cheese frosting are a perfect Fall treat! Top them with a little Hershey Kiss acorn, and they are a sweet place setting for Thanksgiving!
If you have followed this blog for very long, you know that I hate pumpkin. I cave in to autumn recipes though and sometimes create pumpkin treats for you all. I rely on others to tell me how they taste, and these got RAVE reviews from my taste-testing friends.
They are an adaptation of my mom’s delicious Pumpkin Roll, but in cute and bite-size portions!
And then there are those cute little acorns- easy and fun to make for your fall celebrations.
Here’s how we created all of this yummy-ness! (printable recipe)
INGREDIENTS: (makes about 38-40 mini cupcakes)
Cupcakes:
- 2/3 cup pumpkin
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1/2tsp. cinnamon
- 1 tsp. baking soda
Frosting: (halve this if you don’t like piles of frosting as shown in my photos!)
- 8 oz (1 package) cream cheese (softened)
- 1/2 cup of butter (softened)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- dash of salt
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup white chocolate chips (melted)
Acorns:
- 40 Hershey kisses
- 40 mini Nilla Wafers
- about 1/2 cup of chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS:
Cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Mix together all of the cupcake ingredients, adding the flour, cinnamon and soda last. Blend well.
- Spoon into mini cupcake liners, filling each about 3/4 full.
- Bake for 14-16 minutes
- Cool completely and frost.
Frosting:
- On medium speed, beat together cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and salt until creamy.
- Gradually add powdered sugar, beating until smooth.
- Melt white chocolate chips in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring between, until smooth.
- Add melted white chocolate to icing and beat on low until completely combined.
- Place in a zip-top bag fitted with a decorating tip and pipe frosting on top of cooled mini cupcakes.
- Add leaf sprinkles and acorn (if desired)
Acorns:
- Count out about 40 chocolate chips, Nilla Wafers and (unwrapped!) Hershey kisses.
- Melt remaining chocolate chips
- Set Nilla Wafers flat side up on a plate.
- Spread a small amount of melted chocolate on the bottom of a Hershey kiss and set it (melted chocolate side down) on a Nilla Wafer. Repeat until all kisses are placed and refrigerate until hardened together.
- Use a toothpick to put a small amount of melted chocolate on a chocolate chip and carefully hold to the top of the Nilla Wafer until it hardens and stays (when the Nilla Wafer is cold from the fridge, this happens in seconds).
- Use to decorate your table and your cupcakes!!!
My thoughts: Cute, easy and (according to my friends!) delicious! I hope you get a chance to try these little bites of fall happiness! Enjoy!! ~r
Other really fun and cute fall treats: (click on a photo to see the recipe!)
Spider Egg Cupcakes
These delicious little chocolate cupcakes are topped with terrifyingly cute little spiders, webs and egg sacs. A perfect Halloween treat!
There is nothing worse than finding spiders hatching somewhere in or around your house. Spiders are bad. Baby hatching spiders? Way worse. That’s what makes these fun little cupcakes so terrifying! That little egg sac? A Lindt white chocolate truffle. The spiders? Drizzled chocolate and mini M&Ms. Easy, fun and so cute that you almost start liking spiders! Almost.
Aren’t they fun??? All by themselves, on cookies, on cupcakes… so many ways you could use these.
Here’s the recipe: (printable version)
INGREDIENTS:
- One boxed cake mix (plus water, oil and eggs to make according to package)
- One tub of white frosting
- 1/4 cup of Wilton’s candy melts in dark chocolate
- 1 cup of Wilton’s candy melts in white chocolate
- One bag of mini M&M’s (usually found by the chocolate chips)
- Orange food coloring
- Purple food coloring
- 24 Lindt white chocolate truffles
DIRECTIONS:
- Make spiders and egg sacs 1st, to give them time to harden up.
- Melt the Wiltons dark chocolate candy melts in the microwave in 3o second increments, stirring in between until completely melted and smooth.
- Clip a corner off a small zip top bag, and place a small round decorating tip in the corner.
- Spoon melted chocolate into bag, and pipe spider “legs” onto parchment paper, topping each set with a brown mini M&M. Pipe spider legs directly on each Lindt Chocolate and add the M&M on top. You’ll need 24 Lindt truffles and 24 extra spiders. I made about 40, and I was glad I did because some of their legs fell off as I pulled them off the parchment paper.
- Allow these to harden completely (you can put this in the fridge to speed this process up if needed)
- Make cake mix according to package and bake in 24 cupcake liners placed in muffin tins. Cool completely.
- Divide the frosting into two parts. Soften it a little bit (10 seconds or so) in the microwave, and color it with purple and orange food coloring.
- (Optional) Cut a small, (the size of the Lindt Truffle) and shallow hole into the top of each cupcake. I did this so that the truffle would settle a little “into” the cupcake rather than just perching on top. It makes frosting these a little messy with crumbs, but I liked the way it looked a little better.
- Dip the top of each cupcake into frosting, covering the top (and inside the little “dent” on top) completely.
- Place a spider “egg sac” on top of each cupcake.
- Melt Wiltons White Candy Melts in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between until completely melted and smooth.
- Place in a zip-top bag, clip a corner and drizzle liberally over the top of each cupcake in a web-like pattern.
- Before the Candy melts firm up, place a couple of spiders on top.
- Allow frosting and candy melts to firm up.
- Enjoy!
My thoughts: These are fun, easy and just a tiny bit creepy. A perfect October treat. The spiders take a little time and patience, but they can be made ahead of time and won’t hold you up when you go to make the cupcakes. I hope you have as much fun as I did with these! Enjoy!! ~r
Other creepy and fun October treats you might enjoy: (click on a photo to see the recipe)
Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes
Filled with cream and topped with rich chocolate, these cupcakes capture all the delicious flavor of a Boston Cream Pie in a single-serving form! Easy and soooo yummy!
I’ve never understood why they call it a pie, when it is SO obviously a cake, but Boston Cream Pie is one of my favorite desserts. There’s something about that filling that makes it so moist and flavorful!
These little creations are as easy as can be because they use a cake mix and instant pudding. Easy and delicious!!
Here’s how we made them: (printable recipe)
INGREDIENTS:
- One boxed yellow cake mix (plus water, oil and eggs to make according to package)
- One packet of Jell-O White Chocolate Instant Pudding (plus milk to make according to package)
- One cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 6 Tablespoons of butter
- Cool Whip, or Butter Cream frosting (1 stick of (softened)butter with 3/4 cups of powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla)
- 24 red Sixlets candies (as desired for decoration)
DIRECTIONS:
- Make cake mix according to package and divide into 24 cupcake liners placed in tins. Bake according to package, and cool.
- Make pudding according to package and spoon into a large zip-top bag. Refrigerate until use.
- Make chocolate sauce by melting chocolate chips and butter together in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring between, until melted and smooth.
- If you are making butter cream for the top (this gives you a swirl on top that is more firm for transporting than Cool Whip): Beat together the butter cream ingredients until they are light and fluffy.
- Place either Cool Whip or butter cream in a zip-top bag fitted with a decorative tip.
- To assemble: use a cupcake corer (or a knife) to remove a core out of the center of each cooled cupcake.
- Cut the tip off the bag containing the pudding and pipe a dollop of pudding into the center of each cupcake.
- Trim the “core” a little bit (makes room for the pudding) and place the top of the core back on, covering the pudding with cake.
- Carefully spoon the warm chocolate over the top of each cupcake, gently pushing it toward the sides, but not over the sides.
- Allow chocolate to cool. It will firm up.
- Once it is completely cool, pipe Cool Whip or butter cream in a little swirl on top.
- Decorate using sixlets (or any other sprinkles or decorations you like!)
- Enjoy!
My thoughts: These really are delicious… I try to only “taste” my treats and give the rest away, but you better believe I finished this little cupcake…with a cup of coffee. Yum! I hope you get a chance to try them too! ~r
Here are some other fun uses for pudding! Click on a photo to see the recipe.
Fourth of July Dessert Ideas!
Oh my, I love the fourth of July! I love the picnics, and pool parties, and cookouts, and fireworks…and the time with family!
My parents have always (like always, for as long as I can remember!) had a giant pool party for the fourth and invited our entire extended family for burgers and brats and volleyball and sunshine….and for a competitive display of our best “at home” fireworks we could find, later in the evening. I have so many fun memories of chasing fireflies and waving sparklers with my cousins (that are all grown with kids of their own now!). This year is different. For starters, mom isn’t here to orchestrate the complexities of the celebration. The house is in boxes and bags- ready to show to whomever might be interested in buying, and the pool and yard are immaculately kept. Pool toys and floats are all deflated and either sold or put away. Sometimes I sit on the back porch and watch the fireflies and remember all the laughter and fun.
I know that these times are not forever over. This year is different, but once dad settles into his new place there will be other celebrations and family times over the fourth. This year though…my heart wasn’t in the “create something new and fun” place. So instead, I thought you might enjoy a collection of some of my previous red-white-and-blue recipes. You can click on the photo or the title, to be taken to the recipe.
Flip Flop Cookies for the Fourth!
Red White and Blue Bundt Cake!
And if you are grilling out for the Fourth, you might need these…
However you celebrate this summer, I hope you have fun making memories with your friends and family~ and I hope you enjoy trying fun, new recipes that become a part of your family traditions! ~r
Fishing Pond Cupcakes
These delicious chocolate cupcakes are filled with a blue frosting “pond” and salty goldfish crackers! A perfect treat for the fish (or fishing!) lovers in your life!
We have a fishing theme on Easybaked these past few weeks. Last week I shared my fishing bobbers and this week a cute little fishing pond! I cannot underestimate the yummy sweet and salty combination of these cupcakes! Those goldfish are a perfect little bite of salt- and simply adorable! These are cute for Father’s day or Birthdays~ and you can even add a few little flower sprinkles for the girls in your life that adore their goldfish!
These are easy-peasy to make, they use a boxed cake mix and a tub of frosting (although, if you are an over-achiever you certainly could do both from scratch!)
Here’s how we made them: (printable recipe)
INGREDIENTS:
- One boxed chocolate cake mix (plus water, oil and eggs to make according to package)
- Two tubs of white frosting
- About 2 cups of green sugar crystals
- One bag of Goldfish Baby crackers (they are smaller than the original crackers)
- Green and blue food coloring gels
DIRECTIONS:
- Make cake mix according to package and bake in 24 cupcake liners set in a baking tin. Cool completely.
- Open one tub of frosting, spoon it into a bowl, heat it for about 15 seconds in the microwave to soften it a little and color it green with food color.
- Open the second tub of frosting spoon it into a bowl, heat it for about 15 seconds in the microwave to soften it a little and color it blue with food color. Spoon it into a zip-top bag and set aside.
- Pour green sugar into a small bowl.
- To assemble: Cut a pond-shaped circle hole into the top of each cupcake using a small knife and pull out the core.
- Dip the top of the cupcake into the green frosting and then into the green sugar, coating it completely.
- Cut a corner off the bag holding the blue frosting and pipe it into the pond opening on the top of the cupcake.
- Add a couple of goldfish and flower sprinkles if desired –and enjoy!!!
My thoughts: How fun!!! I hope you get a chance to make these cute little cupcakes for your next “fishy” get-together ~ maybe this weekend at the lake cottage??? ~Enjoy!!!
Need some other fun summer ideas? We have lots of them! Click on a photo to see the recipe:
EASYBAKED 