When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemon Cupcakes. Duh.

It's been over a month since I made a post here. I got wrapped up in the office politics of a pretty shitty job that I'm somewhat relieved not to be working anymore. At any rate, it was sucking my soul, and as we all know, soul is essential to cooking, so most nights when I got home from work were either spent lamenting over my Burger King, or boiling some yellow rice and calling it a day.

But I'm back with a vengeance you could say, and today I bring you lemon cupcakes with fresh raspberry and a lemon-raspberry glaze.

(Look at us! We're so fresh and tasty! Don't be jealous!)

It is a fact of life that lemon + raspberry=win. When cake is involved, that equation actually equals awesomesauce.

Keep in mind, this is the lazy cook's version. If you went ahead and did everything from scratch...well, that would take a long time. Sometimes, I have a need for almost instant gratification with my baked goods. Last night, watching Food Network at 3am was one of those times.

Here's what you need:

-1 box lemon cake mix, plus whatever ingredients the mix calls for (in my case, it was 3 eggs, 1/3 cup oil, and 1 and 1/3 cups water)

-1 container lemon frosting

-1 carton of fresh raspberries

-1 jar raspberry jam or jelly

-1 6oz cup raspberry yogurt

Grease two cupcake pans and preheat your oven to 350*. Adjust temp as needed for higher altitudes.

Next, make your cake! I followed the directions on the box, but instead of using 1 and 1/3 cups water, I used a cup of raspberry yogurt and 1/3 cups water. Fill each little cup in the cake pan halfway with the mix. At this point, you'll eat about half the carton of raspberries. Then, you'll put a raspberry in the middle of each little cup of cake mix. During the baking process, the cake will rise and the raspberry will be trapped in the middle, like a hidden treasure of raspberry goodness. Pop those bad boys in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.

While the precious is in the oven, stick your tub of frosting in a bowl of hot water for 3 minutes. Pour the semi-liquid frosting into a bowl. Mix 1/2-2/3 cup of the raspberry jam into the frosting. It's going to be runny, so more like glaze than frosting. Once your cakes are out of the oven, and while still warm, generously spread the glaze on top. Allow to cool (or don't), consume and enjoy!