Lemon Raspberry Cream Cupcakes

Recently, I attended a baby shower for a great friend of mine. She has been through...A LOT....while traveling along the road of motherhood I can't even begin to explain all of their "adventures". However, she explains it quite well and she is hilarious! Every time I read her BLOG, I laugh so hard i'm in tears, Why? Because if you have children, especially boys, its like she is writing about your life (or at least mine), but with a sense of humor!  You really must check out her blog, its comedic therapy for sure!

Back to the baby shower! So, she already has two boys and is now pregnant with her third....BOY. While I'm sure she has plenty of boy things from her previous 2 boys, I believe the purpose of this shower was truly for the mother-to-be to enjoy a day with the girls, as she awaits the additional adage of testosterone into her life. While I can't imagine a better person to be raising boys, extremely adorable, sweet boys at that, I felt that this baby boy shower must have something feminine other than the attendees....

Anything citrus was the request for dessert, I love making cupcakes, and have I mentioned they are easy!?.....and so you have:

Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes

Lemon-lime cupcakes filled with raspberry cream filling, topped with Whipped cream cheese frosting - and its easy!

Cake and filling Ingredients:

1 lemon Cake mix and required ingredients stated on the box. (I prefer Duncan Hines)

Limeade (I prefer "Simply Limeade")

Heavy Cream

Powdered Sugar (confectioners sugar)

1 can of Raspberry Pie filling

Zest of 2 limes

Cupcakes:

Make cupcakes according to the directions on the cake mix box - Replacing the water with limeade, and add the lime zest to the batter before baking. Bake accordingly.

Limeade glaze:

While the cupcakes are baking pour 1-2 cups of Limeade into a small pot, set on high heat (reduce heat slightly, once boiling) and let reduce until it slightly coats the back of a spoon - a little thinner than store bought pancake syrup. whisk often throughout reduction process, add sugar to taste, if needed. Once thickened, turn off heat and let cool. 

When cupcakes are done baking, using a toothpick or wood skewer, poke about 6 holes in each cupcake. 5 all around + 1 in the middle. Pour about 1 Tbsp of the warm, reduced, limeade over the top of each cupcake. set aside cupcakes and let cool, if you have room in the refrigerator, that's even better.

Filling:

Sorry I don't have exact measurements, taste as you go...(invest in a lot of plastic spoons or plan to wash a lot of spoons.)

Whip about 3 cups of heavy whipping cream and 1/2 cup of powdered sugar (to start) until soft peaks form. Taste, and add more powdered sugar until the taste is sweet but subtle. Continue whipping the cream until stiff peaks form. 

Fold 1/3 of the whipped cream into half of the pie filling. Fold another third of whipped cream, and taste. If its to heavy, fold in more cream. If you want more raspberry, add more filling, and so forth until the mixture is clearly raspberry but still fluffy.

I placed my piping tip into a gallon size freezer ziploc bag with the corner cut off, then filled the bag with the filling. 

Ms. Humble's Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

Original recipe found HERE

2 8oz packs of full fat cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup cold heavy cream (use the ultra heavy 40%+ cream if you can find it)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Add cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla to the bowl of your mixer with the paddle attachment. Beat them thoroughly until fluffy and completely smooth/lump free. In a separate bowl, beat the heavy cream to nearly stiff peaks, then add the whipped cream into the cheese mixture, scrape down the sides of your bowl and quickly and briefly beat to combine. Do not over beat.

Assembly:

Place piping tip down into the top of the cupcake and squeeze in the raspberry cream filling for about 2 seconds. You will feel the cupcake expand just a bit - don't do too much that the cupcake splits. set aside and fill all the cupcakes.

Frost cupcakes, covering the filling hole, and top with a raspberry (my store only had blackberries) dust each cupcake with powdered sugar.

Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes after frosting the cupcakes. They taste best chilled and leftovers need to be refrigerated promptly due to all the whipped cream and cream cheese goodness!

Enjoy!