Jelly Filled Cupcakes

I love sweets.   I know some people are born with a taste for salty, or spicy, but I was born to satisfy my sweet cravings.   In college I had a hard time balancing my tastes with my weight, but luckily I finally leveled out and succeeded in indulging in sweets and still wearing a size smaller than I did in high school. Don’t hate me – life won’t always be this good to me – and I’m aware of that.   I have no idea how I’ll survive in those days to come, but something tells me I’m gonna need to start buying stock in flowy tops. The other night I was playing with the boys and all of a sudden I had an intense craving for jelly-filled yellow cupcakes.   I have no idea why, I don’t question my taste buds, but I knew I had to make it happen. Rhett, my kitchen helper, was definitely up to lend a hand with this one!   We started with a yellow cake mix and prepared as the directions state.   Then we used a ladle to pour the mix into the cupcake liners. Note – I knew I’d be using 3 different kinds of filling, so I used 3 different colored cupcake liners.   The ladle is much easier than spooning the batter in, and it’s bigger so   it goes faster.   Besides, when it’s time to lick the spoon, now you have a whole ladle to lick instead. Licking is not optional. Your welcome! Next you put the cupcakes into the oven for the amount of time indicated on the box. Check them periodically with a toothpick or a wooden skewer. (I actually prefer the skewers because then I don’t have to get my fingers so close to the hot pan!) Once they are done baking, allow them to cool (in the pan) for about 5 to 10 minutes.   While they are cooling, get the types of filling you’d like.   For this recipe I used strawberry jelly, blackberry jam, and cream cheese frosting.     Put about 1/8 of a cup of jam in a microwavable cup or dish and microwave for about 15 seconds.   When it comes out, stir it quickly to get it to a liquidly consistency. Then, using a bakers bag (this is one case where I recommend the bakers bag instead of a plain old Ziploc bag – it works better and it’s more stiff) insert a metal tip with a plain hole at the end.   Place your finger, or a folded paper towel over the tip’s end so no filling leaks out.   Then, spoon the filling into the bag and squeeze out the air. Insert the tip into the center of the cupcakes and squeeze the bag until a little dot of filling is present on top of the cupcake.   This won’t take much – so squeeze slowly until you get the hang of how much each cupcake can take.   Finish filling the remainder with that filling, and then rinse the bag and start over with your next filling.   I recommend that if you fill any with icing, as I did, you do the icing ones last since the icing is harder to clean out of the bakers bag. Once all the cupcakes are filled, you are ready to ice the top of them – if you so desire.   Personally I am not a big fan of icing, so I set a couple aside for me that remained un-iced!   Once they are iced, they are ready to serve.   Be warned however, because according to my taste testers – you can’t just eat one.   So if you need to plan ahead and stop a little short on your dinner to leave room for this dessert, please do so! Enjoy!