21 Cupcakes

Fair warning, another super good craft with a me moment at the end!

ALRIGHT I only made 12 cupcakes not 21, but it's day 21 and that counts.  But still.  First, note that I teeeeecccchnically did this yesterday.  HOWEVER, it was such a good result, but not good enough that I could bump the steampunk pendant, so I decided to expand on it and use it today.  And then I came up with the single best idea ever, and so it is really more like a new one at this point.

Not that I really got to try out my idea, but it combines two I have done previously, so it would work amazingly.

Ready for it?

LOW FAT LEMON LIGHTIES!!! yes, low fat.

Ingredients:
-1 box super moist white cake mix (with the pudding) 15.whatever size the box is nowadays
-2 lemon chobani yogurts
-Slightly under 1 cup of water (unless you find an 18.25 ounce box in which case go ahead and use a full cup)
-1 regular size tub of low fat cool whip (or fat free, I just happened to find LF on sale at the time)

For the Cupcakes:
Mix the cake mix, one lemon chobani, and the water together.  This is one of the few times I don't even feel the need to break out the Kitchenaid.  And I mean VERY FEW TIMES.  Anyway, give that a good mixer-rama until it is all incorporated, and fill 12 lined cupcake wells with the mix.  It might have made a few more, but I ate a bit of the batter...it doesn't have raw eggs so I got a little over excited :).  I personally filled mine up a good ways, it was AT LEAST 2/3 of the way full in each cup.  It is a thick batter, so it really doesn't spill over much.

Bake these at 350F, and pretty much follow the baking times.  I believe mine were in there for maybe just shy of the 18 minutes it calls for on cupckaes, but since I am not used to this gas oven and my smoke detector when off at least 20 times and I was scrambling around, I really have no idea how long they were in there.  I turned the oven off at first because the alarm scared me, but decided that I was not going to give up on them and gave it another whirl with all of my windows open and fans going everywhere.  So my best advice is check them around 15, they probably won't need too much longer and I doubt would reach 20 in there.  Use the toothpick test on the center of them and you will be just fine.


This whole cake plus yogurt stuff has been on Hungry Girl btw.




If my stupid internet (worst connection EVER) allows me to upload a picture, I am hoping that right here will be where you see how good the inside of them looks.  Look at those air bubble holes so typical of many cuppycakes.  Look at that lovely color and thourough cooking.  Look at my internet symbol telling me I have no internet access and yet here I am still typing away hoping for the best...

What pretty cuppycakes.  Anyway, if you just do the lemon and the white it does not come out with a very strong lemon flavor but does taste extremely good.  I would almost say I like it a little better than typical vanilla.  But maybe it is the texture that I like so well.  It is close to a regular cupcake but a little more substantial, if you will. Thicker, maybe is a good word for it. QUICK INTERNET ADD PICTURES!!

AHAHA new found spot to work, going rogue and laying on my dining room floor.  Strangely it vastly helps my connection to one of the routers.  Oh well, I'll take it, I will even break out my sleeping bag if need be.

I had absolutely nothing to ice these with when I made them.  After setting off my alarm as many times as I did, I really did not even care.  But I got to thinking about it today, mostly because I had these in the fridge overnight since my counter space is limited (highly advise).  And what I came up with was partnering these with some other deliciousness I made a few months ago.

MIX your remaining lemon chobani into your coolwhip.  Or maybe even Dream Whip if you are fancy pants such as that.  Anyway, this by itself is completely freaking delicious, but on top of these cupcakes and the whole dealio being in the fridge is completely the way to go.  This is absolutely doable for a cake instead of cupcakes (poke cake style with lemon jello possibly), and is a great way to cut out a lot of the fat and sneak some protein in. 

Not that it necessarily makes them healthy per se, but it sure does take them a huge step in the right direction.

All in all, I have had a rough start to my graduate career.  I am not sure I am capable of doing it, I am used to passing things in flying colors with relatively little effort.  Grad School, on the other hand I think will push me to my limits and possibly even my breaking point and that has me a little on edge.  I have however started to make friends and that is cool and all, but seriously this internet thing is killing me.

Talk about first world problems.

This is why I sometimes get really mad at myself- here I am complaining that my internet doesn't work in my cozy little apartment whereas campus is under a mile away and I could always go use theirs.  We never realize how completely dependent and somewhat lazy we become living in such a great country where most of us have stuff handed to us, do we?

And boohoo, grad school will be hard.  Others don't ever get the chance to attend graduate school and here I am not only attending it, but doing it mostly on someone else's dime.

So yes, I am officially a little first world twit.  And it irks me greatly.  I feel some self evaluation and reflecting coming on.  I also have this sneaking feeling that I am right where I need to be, as much as I hate to admit it.

You know those moments, when you know God does something that you can't ignore? I think I just had one.  A friend texted me completely out of the blue that I have not talked to in a good long while, just to wish me luck at grad school.  I had been thinking about emailing this guy a while back but was not sure what email he was using. 

Well played, God, well played.  Keep sending me the messages (but don't email them my wifi sucks).

Amen.