Strawberry Cupcakes

I have had this Country Cook recipe pinned for a while and wanted to give it a whirl (http://www.thecountrycook.net/2013/02/fresh-strawberry-cake.html). 

The cupcakes seemed to be a hit at work and I liked them pretty well. They were super moist and the recipe itself is really easy since it uses boxed cake mix. 

Ingredients

For the cake:

1 box white cake mix (could use vanilla or yellow as well)

1 (3 oz.) box strawberry Jell-O mix

4 eggs

1 cup oil

1cup fresh strawberries, crushed (about 1 pint)

For the icing: ***

8 oz. cream cheese, softened (the recipe actually calls for 4 oz. but I ended up doubling it since the frosting was a little thin and sweeter than I wanted)

1/3 cup butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tbsp milk

Leftover mashed strawberries (~1/4 cup)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350. Add gelatin mix and cake mix. Combine well.

Stir in oil, eggs, and water. Mix together.

Rinse and chop strawberries.

Place strawberries into plastic bag and mash (you could use a meat tenderizer, potato masher, or maybe even a hammer if the mood strikes you).

Add 1 cup of strawberry mash to your batter.

Gently stir in the strawberries by hand.

Spoon into your cupcake tin with cups. Bake for 20 minutes. (If you want to make a cake, pour your batter into an oiled/sprayed baking dish and bake at 350 for 30-33 minutes).

In a smaller bowl start working on your frosting.

Cream together your softened butter and cream cheese.

Add powdered sugar.

At this point I tasted the frosting and decided it was too sweet and too thin, so I added the additional 4 oz of cream cheese.

I then folded in about 1/4 cup of the leftover strawberry mash into the frosting.

Pull the cupcakes out, make sure they are baked through completely. A little browning on top is normal. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

Frost and EAT.

***This was very light for a cream cheese frosting, even after I doubled the cream cheese content. It didn't hold well and would be better suited for a cake (which is how the original recipe utilizes it). I think if I ever made these again as cupcakes I would use a thicker, richer cream cheese frosting to balance out the light nature of the cupcakes, and also to give the frosting some hold.

Happy Wednesday!