Cupcake Hero to the rescue!

When Laurie announced she wanted to do a cupcake event, I was all for it! I Love cupcakes! And my children Love cupcakes. Yes, that is Love with a capital L. Love. Love. Love.

And what isn't to love. Small sized so you are given instant portion control. Extra icing without having to have the over iced corner piece of a cake. Goodness in a small package.

And when she said the theme would be lime, I had visions of making a key lime cupcake, with graham cracker in a lime flavored cake, lime zest flecked whipped cream topping a lime curd center. Oh how I can just taste it now!

I never found a recipe for it though, and just did not have the time for making it up, not with all the extra things I have signed up for lately (I am now the newly "elected" treasurer of my children's school council.) I thought things would settle down and I would have the time, but I didn't and found myself running out of time. With the deadline tomorrow, I had to resort to drastic measure.

Yes, I made cake from a cake mix. With jello. And pudding. (And whipped topping mix, which I forgot to add to the picture.)

Heck, these cupcakes could probably qualify for the Retro Recipe Challenge, hosted by Delores, but I'm submitting them as my entry to be a Cupcake Hero instead!

I understand this recipe showed up in a woman's magazine sometime in the 50's. Can't say which one (I wasn't born yet,) but my grandmother must have clipped it, made it and her 4 children enjoyed it as she made it from time to time when I was growing up. I remember making it for the first time when I was in high school, as part of an English assignment where we were writing articles for a fake newspaper and I did a culinary review on the cake, plus brought it in to class for all of us to share. It was a huge hit.

These days I rarely use cake mixes anymore, and the jello boxes that are in my pantry have been there for longer than I should admit. But I had to deliver some of these cupcakes across the street to my neighbours because it is so good that I would happily eat several of them without thinking about it. (If I thought about it, I'd probably eat even more!)

So, how to make them....

Make a lemon cake mix according to the box directions. Mine took 3 eggs, 1/3 cup of oil and 1 1/3 cup of water. Put the cupcake batter in 18 - 24 paper lined muffin tins. You need to line these, you can't just spray them. That little paper cup is very important!

Bake them and then let them cool, in the pan.

When they are cool, make the lime jello but only use 1 1/2 cups of water instead of the usual 2 cups. Set the jello aside for a few minutes, and use a fork to poke 3 or 4 holes in each cupcake. You will want to give the fork a little giggle while it is in the cupcake, to make a large enough hole. These holes are the channels for the jello.

Spoon in 1 tablespoon of jello in each cupcake, slowly so you don't spill. When all the cupcakes have jello in them, start over and put in another tablespoon of the liquid. This is where those paper cups are necessary - they catch the jello that sinks down to the bottom of those channels make with the fork.

Chill the cupcakes, still in the pan, for at least 1 hour, but 2 is better.

After they have chilled for awhile, put 2 cups of milk into a large bowl, then add the lemon pudding (instant pudding, not cooked pudding), and a package of whipped topping and whip them together into the milk for 2 minutes. Let the mix sit for five minutes and then spoon or pipe the "icing" onto the cupcakes.

Chill them if you aren't going to eat them right away. Which we did.

Aren't they pretty?

Now you can technically make these cupcakes using any flavor combination, but my personal favorites use either lime jello or cherry jello. I can't see using a different flavor cake or pudding for the icing, but someone else might like it.

Now if you'll excuse me, I should probably put the last few in the fridge, before we eat them all.