Food Network Italian Wedding Cupcake's!

Yesterday, I had this incredible urge to bake. I needed to bake something pretty, and fun, and yummy, and something I could easily share with others. I searched online for a cupcake recipe. I wanted to make something homemade (like from scratch), but settled on this exotic recipe from Food Network’s Sandra Lee, even if it did use a cake mix to start.

The recipe was for a cake but I adapted it into cupcakes and they turned out perfect! Here is a link to the recipe, but I will lay out my cupcake version for you below! This is not a WW recipe but I did put it in my tracker and it came out to 8p+ (not too bad for a decedent treat!)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sandra-lee/italian-wedding-cake-recipe/index.html

Italian Wedding Cake Recipe

Ingredients
1 (18.25-ounce) box white cake mix
1 stick butter, softened
1 1/4 cups buttermilk (I used skim milk and added some lemon juice as we had no buttermilk)
3 egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 cup sweetened flake coconut
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans, divided
2 (16-ounce) cans cream cheese frosting

Directions
· Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
· Fill cupcake pan with 24 liners: set aside. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, butter, buttermilk, egg whites, and extracts. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Fold in crushed pineapple, coconut, and 1 cup pecans. Divide batter into cupcake liners. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until tester inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes then turn out on to wire racks to cool completely.
· In a small bowl, stir together remaining ½ cup pecans and frosting.

YUM!