Bring on Spring Cupcakes!

Evidently, Mother Nature lost her rule book or something, because we aren’t supposed to have as many rainy, cloudy, days as Seattle. For those of you who aren’t familiar with my neck of the woods, I basically live on the Washington/Idaho border. I am pretty sure that we could give Seattle a run for their money on who has had the most rain in the last 12 months. I bet we’re pretty darn close. I’m running out of positive things to think about all of this rain we’ve been getting. It’s relentless and it seems like it’s been going on for months on end. The more I think about it, it probably isn’t even the rain that is driving me to grimace when I hear those drops smacking the window as much as the lack of sunlight. Now if it could rain and be sunny all at the same time…maybe then I wouldn’t be so apt to sigh and roll my eyes when I look outside lately.

Since there’s not much hanging around outside going on around here, I took some extra time to wander around our local Fred Meyer yesterday. (Woo hoo, what fun right?) Well, I ran across some cute little cupcake papers that I thought were really cool and very “Spring like”. At this point, I’m willing to do just about anything to bring Spring to my house, even if it’s in the form of cupcake papers and pastel colored sprinkles.

I also decided to buy myself a few bouquets of flowers to brighten up the house.  Set three different vases out, and you know what? It does brighten up the house and bring a little of the outdoors in. So until Mother Nature remembers that we’re on the eastern side of Washington state and brings us the beautiful Spring weather we’re used to, I’ll have to rely on tulip cupcake papers, and fresh bouquets of flowers.

See, even Romeo, one of our dogs is enjoying bringing a little Spring into the house. Notice sweet, furry, nose on the left.

Red Raspberry Surprise Spring Cupcakes

Preheat Oven To 350°  (Makes 12 Cupcakes)

1 Box Betty Crocker Yellow Gluten Free Cake Mix

1/2 Cup Dairy Free Butter

1 1/2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

1/2 teaspoon Pure Almond Extract

3 Eggs

2/3 Cup Water

*Red Raspberry all fruit jelly – about 5 oz. or half a jar. (This will get piped into the cupcakes after they have cooled)

*Pillsbury Creamy Supreme Cream Cheese Frosting (It’s gluten-free and dairy-free)

Follow mixing directions on box. Line a muffin tin with 12 white cupcake papers. Lightly squirt each one with just a tiny amount of non-stick spray. Fill cupcake papers with batter.

Bake in preheated oven for 21 minutes. Cool completely.

Once cooled, fill piping bag with jelly(use at least a #5 round tip). Gently squeeze jelly into center of each cupcake.

Place cupcakes in flower papers.

Frost as desired.