raspberry lemonade

i had a fun time baking today! we're having a potluck at work on sunday and that's just the excuse i needed to try out a new recipe. i decided i was going to try out a fun summery raspberry lemonade cupcake. i googled for a recipe but none were just what i was looking for so i mix and matched. here's the recipe i ended up with:

Raspberry Puree: 12 oz raspberries  • 1/4 c granulated white sugar  • 1/2 t fresh lemon juice
Cupcakes: 1 (18.25-ounce) white cake mix, plus any add'l ingredients called for on pkg 
• 3 T lemonade drink powder  • 1 t finely grated lemon zest
Frosting: 1/2 lb confectioners (powdered) sugar  • 1/4 c (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened 
• 2 T frozen lemonade concentrate  • 1/2 t vanilla  • 1/2 t finely grated lemon zest
Directions:
Raspberry Puree: Place raspberries in a large fine meshed strainer suspended over a large bowl and force the juice from the berries by gently pressing the berries with the back of a large spoon. All that should remain in the strainer is the raspberry seeds, compost these. To the strained juice, stir in the lemon juice and sugar (add more if needed). For extra flavor, add a little raspberry liqueur.
For the cake, in a large bowl, stir together the cake mix and lemonade powder. Prepare the cake batter according to the package directions, using any additional ingredients called for (eggs, milk, water, oil, etc…). Stir the lemon zest into the batter. Fill baking cups about 1/3 full, then add a teaspoon(ish) of puree (if there's some leftover at the end it can be used on top of the 
cupcake as a drizzle). Swirl puree into cake mix with a toothpick. Fill the rest of the cup (3/4 full) with cake batter. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until cake is springy to the touch.
For the frosting, beat together the confectioners’ sugar and butter until fluffy. Beat in the remaining ingredients until combined.

that seems like a lot, it's not too bad though! i did work on this for a long time today but that's because i had a few hiccups. the first is that i don't have a zester. so i had used a veggie
peeler and knife. another (and the biggie) was as i was finishing my second set of cupcakes i ran out of batter and they were all tiny (see pic). since i'm bringing these to work i wanted them to be sort of impressive so i ended up going back to the store and getting another box of cake mix and making another set. finally i really needed an electric mixer for the frosting. i built up some muscles mixing that by hand!