Bell Jar Vintage: Allergies

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

My sister is a Pampered Chef consultant. This fact comes with perks for me!

We happened to babysit my nephews for her this past Saturday, and to thank me she gave me a stone muffin pan that I've been coveting. {All my other muffin pans get rust stains even washing by hand.}
Never seen that happen to stoneware. So... Lucky me!

I was so excited to try it out, and I just happened to have some pink lemonade cake mix I picked up on clearance at Target (summer is not over yet!). I knew just what I wanted to do with it.

You see, my 8 year old son has severe food allergies. He used to be allergic to everything on God's green Earth. The great news is that now he has grown out of all of his food allergies with the exception of eggs, peanuts and tree nuts. Baking is hard - eggs are in everything. And alternatives are not so tasty.

~ But, again, I count my blessings for what he can now have. ~

I have tried so many variations of eggless cupcakes/cakes for parties. Everyone sweetly eats them like they are yummy... Everyone, that is, but my son! :) He touches the tip of his tongue to it and declares it inedible.

He doesn't trust food. I don't blame him. Certain foods could cause him serious harm or even death. Again, I do NOT blame him for this. If anything I blame myself. {You know the "what if" game we mothers play.}

Anywhooo...on to my actual topic! I decided to try a quick recipe from Pinterest that was egg-free - and super duper easy. 'Cause that's how I roll.

Oh, and yes, I used a boxed cake mix. Don't hate me too much!

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Ingredients:

box Pillsbury Pink Lemonade cake mix

1 cup greek yogurt

1 cup water

Directions:

Mix the cake mix and greek yogurt until well blended (mine looked very crumbly like couscous)

Add water and mix until smooth and creamy (mine was thicker than typical cake batter)

Follow baking directions on box {I baked cupcakes, so I baked them for about 18 minutes at 350 degrees}

I realized after making my cupcakes that I didn't have frosting. So, back to Pinterest I went! I had been wanting to try this recipe for a quick frosting that, again, was sure to not have egg.

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Ingredients:

1 pkg Jell-O instant pudding (any size, any flavor desired)

1 container Cool Whip

1/2 the milk called for on your pudding box

Directions for Frosting:

Mix pudding packet with 1/2 the amount of milk called for on the box. {Mine said to mix with 2 cups of milk, so I used just 1 cup.}

Fold in Cool Whip

Stand back and appreciate how simple that was! :)

Once your cupcakes are completely cooled, frost away.

I had some adorable strawberry cupcake liners waiting for the perfect opportunity. I even added a fresh, homegrown strawberry from my little deck garden.

Now, I can only imagine the amount of combinations/adaptations these two recipes could make. The greek yogurt is supposedly delicious combined with chocolate cake mix. And you could add flavored pudding to the frosting. This is fairly low-fat, but you could use sugar free pudding mix and Cool Whip Lite, to reduce calories, too.

{I wish I had taken the time to pipe the frosting on, but hey, it was naptime - I do what I can with the time that I have!}

I even decided after all the cupcakes were eaten that it would have been SO cute to dip the rim of the cupcake frosting in Country Time lemonade powder.