Blue Raspberry Beach Cupcakes

In case you missed my guest post last week on Shaken Together, check out my latest creation....Blue Raspberry Beach Cupcakes.  It's a short cut recipe, using a box mix to save a little time.  I usually make my cupcakes from scratch, please excuse my cheating just this one time.  The blue raspberry flavor was a success, my godchild already requested the flavor for his birthday cake next month!  So technically I guess I will be cheating again!  O.K. I'm a cheater, deal with it!

Blue Raspberry Cupcakes:
1 classic white cake mix
1- 3 oz. box berry blue Jello-O
4 large egg whites
1 1/3 cup milk
2 Tbs. vegetable oil

Line muffin tins with cupcake papers.  Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Stir all ingredients together.  Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.  Pour batter into prepared cups.  This recipe will make about 30 cupcakes.  Bake 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Cool completely before frosting.

Blue Raspberry Buttercream:
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup shortening
1 1/2 tsp. raspberry extract
4 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbs. milk
food coloring of choice

Mix butter and shortening together with paddle attachment of stand mixer until smooth and creamy.  Add powdered sugar 1/4 cup at a time, mixing in completely and scraping down sides of bowl after each addition.  Mix in raspberry extract and milk, using additional milk to reach piping consistency if needed.  Stir in blue food coloring depending on shade of blue desired.  Pipe frosting on cupcakes and decorate as desired.

These Blue Raspberry Cupcakes would be fine with a cute straw stuck in like these.  If you have a little more time and maybe want to get the kids involved in the decorating, I suggest you try making some candy clay.  I first discovered candy clay in the book, Cupcakes, Cookies & Pie, Oh, My!  They have so many creative ways to decorate with candies but I liked the idea of making my own candy, shaping and molding it into all sorts of cupcake decorations.  It's easy to make and is tasty too!

Candy Clay (from Cupcakes, Cookies & Pie, Oh, My!):

1 12 oz. bag chocolate chips or

1 14 oz. bag Wilton Candy Melts

1/3 cup light corn syrup

Melt candy in microwave.  Stir after every 10-20 seconds and continue to do so.  It won't take more than 1 minute to melt.  Stir corn syrup and melted candy together.  It instantly thickens together.  Wrap the mixture in plastic wrap and let set for several hours. 

You can start with the candy melt color you wish to work with or add in food coloring once set up.  To work into shape or color, simply knead the clay with your hands.  This is where the kids will have fun creating their own candy masterpieces!  If the clay gets too soft from the heat of your hands, wrap in plastic wrap and allow to set up.  Clay can be rolled out thin between sheets of wax paper and then cut with a knife into shapes you like.  If you have small cookie cutters, those would work great too.  Colors can be stacked or mixed together too.  This candy clay is so fun to work with!

If you want to make a beach theme like I did, cover some of your frosted cupcakes in graham cracker crumbs to look like sand.  I did small groups of cupcakes, but you could do a large layout will all or most of your cupcakes too.  Set your sand cupcakes closely together and then line one side with unfrosted cupcakes.  Get the unfrosted cupcakes as close together as you can, when finished, you want them to look like one set of waves.  Pipe frosting along cupcakes to make continuous waves.  I used Wilton tip 1G and love how the waves turned out. 

What cupcake theme would you like to see next, any ideas?

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