Bomb Pop Cupcakes

June is almost gone and July is nearly here! With Independence Day on it's way I thought these Bomb Pop Cupcakes might be perfect for your next barbecue or family party! Created by Oh-Lolaaa via Tumblr, this recipe is easy to follow and looks amazing!

Cupcake base

1 Box Lemon Cake Mix (I use Duncan Hines)

4 eggs1 cup buttermilkAmount of oil called for on box1 Tablespoon lime juice
1 (4 serving size) box Raspberry Jell-O
5 tablespoons milk
6 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon cherry extract
1 1/2 teaspoon raspberry extract
1 1/2 teaspoon lime extract or lime juice
blue gel food coloring
red gel food coloring

Preheat oven to 350. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine cake mix, eggs, buttermilk, oil, and lime juice. Mix on low speed with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds or until well combined.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl and increase mixer speed to medium. Beat for 2 minutes.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter and bake for about 15 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched.

Remove from oven and let pans cool on wire racks.

Once cupcakes have cooled, remove from pans and poke holes in the tops with a wooden skewer.

In a medium bowl, stir together:

1 cup boiling water

Carefully spoon Jell-O mixture over cupcakes, allowing it to soak into the holes.

Frosting

3 sticks butter, softened to room temperature

wooden popsicle sticks for garnish

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and milk on low speed until barely combined. Increase to medium speed and mix until well blended.

Add powdered sugar and beat on low speed until combined. Increase speed to medium and beat for about 2 minutes, until light and fluffy.

Measure one cup of frosting into a bowl. Split the remaining frosting evenly into two other bowls.

Add the cherry extract and desired amount of red color to the bowl with only one cup of frosting. In another bowl, stir the lime juice into the frosting. In the other, add the raspberry extract and desired amount of blue color.

Pipe the blue raspberry frosting on the cupcakes, followed by the lime and cherry frosting.  Insert a popsicle stick in the middle of the cupcakes.

**Depending on how high you want to pipe the frosting on your cupcakes, you may want to double the frosting recipe.

Sunshine Cupcakes: Deconstructed

Summer is here and the skies here in California have been beautifully sunny! I found this kid friendly cupcake while I was perusing Pinterest, but I didn't find a recipe for it...so I decided to deconstruct it!

The cupcake I'm sure can be made with your favorite cake mix and by just dyeing your favorite canned vanilla frosting a bright sunny yellow! The eyes look like upside down mini chocolate chips (though, I'm sure regular size chocolate chips would work just as well, maybe for sunglasses instead!). The smiley looks like a cut piece of sour string. Then we have the rays of sunshine, which are obviously candy corns.

Hopefully now you all can recreate these yourself! I would definitely recommend this to parents with children that are out of school for the Summer, it would be a perfect afternoon activity!

Snow Cone Cupcakes

Summer is nearly here and these Snow Cone Cupcakes are sure to be an absolute hit at all the upcoming BBQs this season! Lucky for you these little lovelies developed by the ever creative Bakerella won't melt away!

Sure, these would be great for the Fourth Of July based on the color scheme above but you can use any color combination to recreate these for children's parties, gifts, etc! The snow cone effect can be achieved with sugar crystals, which have a larger size and chunkier texture than the usual sprinkles. But be sure to use sprinkles that match your icing color so you can get the best effect possible! You can check out Bakerella's full tutorial here!

When Jello Met Cupcakes

Now here's something I never thought of...mixing Jello with cupcakes! The blog, Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate adapted this recipe from a Tie-Dye Cupcakes recipe in a Rachel Ray magazine. 

These cupcakes look fun and are actually quite simple to recreate! Pick your favorite box cake mix (white is recommended), a fun color/flavor of Jello and ta-da! Simply follow the box cake directions and add your jello mix to half the batter! The buttercream frosting is pretty straightforward as well and again, includes some Jello mix. I suppose if you really wanted to, you could use one Jello flavor for the cake and another for the frosting...go crazy! You can see the entire recipe here!

Hunger Games Cupcakes for Kid's Party

Check out these Hunger Games cupcakes by Kid's Birthday Parties. More info and purchase prices here.

Giveaway: Cupcake Stands by Green Party Goods!

Perfect for a kid's party or for a groovy grownup (like me!) who still likes kid stuff, we are giving away two sock monkey cupcake stands from Green Party Goods. What I especially like about Green Party Goods is its commitment to sustainable, green, nontoxic, recyclable and recycled, eco- and forest-friendly party goods. No reliance on petroleum! There's nothing I wouldn't enjoy in the cupcake craze section!

If you want one of those adorable sock monkey cupcake stands (and who wouldn't?) you will need to friend Green Party Goods on Facebook and then leave us your email address in the comments section below. We will pick two winners at random on Friday, April 20, 2012 at 5 pm ET. This giveaway is open to residents of the Unites States and Canada only, due to shipping restrictions. Please remember to check your email for our winning notice.

Best of luck to you all!

;)