Foodie Friday: Strawberry Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray pans with non-stick spray. Place the cake mix, jello, strawberries, oil, milk and eggs in a large bowl. Mix 3 minutes, stopping to scrap down sides of bowl a couple times. Divide the batter evenly among layer pans or pour into 9×13 inch pan. For 9×13 pan bake 28 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (Cook layers according to directions on box of cake mix.) (I used cupcake pans and baked them according to the instructions on the box. It ended up making about 24 cupcakes.) Remove cake and cool completely.
2. Frost with frosting of your choice. (She actually has a recipe for homemade cream cheese frosting, but I opted to use Duncan Hines Cream Cheese Frosting instead.)

In prepping my fresh strawberries for use, I cut off the tops and then rinsed them. To mash them, I put them in the food processor and hit the pulse button a few times. It worked great. I think they’re really what makes the cake, or cupcakes in this case, delicious. Instead of that manufactured strawberry taste that is sometimes found in boxed cake mix, you really get a natural, fresh strawberry flavor.  The cream cheese icing was the perfect addition. Plus, I added some festive sprinkles since I made these right around Memorial Day.

Even though it took a fair amount of strawberries to get one cup, I had plenty left which I sealed and froze for future use. I already have some recipes in mind that I’d like to use them for so stay tuned!