Ingredients Needed:
- Half of a lemon
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1- 16 oz container of strawberries
- 1 box of yellow cake mix
- 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick) at room temperature
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup of milk
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1- 8 oz block of cream cheese at room temperature(not pictured)
- 1- 16 oz container of cream cheese frosting (not pictured)
- olive oil or spray to coat 2 cupcake pans
- Good music playing in the background
Strawberry Filling
- Juice one half of a lemon.
- Rinse and chop off stems of all strawberries from a 16-ounce container.
- Set aside 4 strawberries.
- Measure out 1/2 cup of sugar.
- Put all ingredients in a pot on the stove, except for the 4 strawberries as you will use these for decoration later.
- Smash up the berries with a wooden spoon as the mixture begins to boil. There should still be clumps of strawberry intact.
- Simmer for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally as it slightly thickens.
- Take the pot off the stove and put the strawberry mixture in a bowl to cool off.
- When it reaches room temperature, cover, and cool inside the fridge until ready to use.
Before you leave this section, let me show you what to do with the strawberry mix once it has cooled down. You can finish this step while you’re waiting for the cupcakes to cook. Or… you can dance around the kitchen to the good music your playing while eating a bag of Hot Cheetos…I wont judge you.
Use 4 ounces of the cream cheese and beat together with the strawberry mixture using a hand mixer.
It doesn’t look so pretty, kind of looks like Pepto Bismol color but it tastes delicious! Now do as I say and put this filling in the fridge!
***Now is a perfect time to turn oven on at 350 degress ***
Cupcakes
In a large mixing bowl beat together the milk, butter, dry cake mix, and 3 eggs for about 2 minutes. The batter will be thick.
Now you want to spray olive oil inside each individual cup in a circular motion. Coat well so cupcakes do not stick. I never use liners but you can do whatever your little heart desires.
*The best way to measure out your batter is to put 3 to 4 tablespoons of batter in each cup. If you bake a lot, you should buy a standard size scoop that will easily scoop the batter into each cup without making a mess. Right now, I only have a cookie scoop that holds 1 tablespoon at a time, so I really need to buy a larger scoop that holds 3 tablespoons at once. *
Make sure the oven has reached 350 degrees and put both pans on the top rack of the oven. Cook 19-23 mins. Mine were done after 20 minutes. While your waiting, let’s start making the frosting.
Frosting
The frosting is too simple:
- You’re just going to put the whole 16 oz container of frosting, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and 4 ounces of the cream cheese in a bowl.
- Using a hand mixer, beat until smooth.
- Put in the fridge until ready to use.
Waiting…
You might still be waiting for either the cupcakes to be done or cool down, now would be a great time to finish the strawberry filling. Please scroll up to see section Strawberry Filling.
Finish the cupcakes…finally…
Once the cupcakes have completely cooled down. You will want to use a knife, a parer knife works really well. You’re going to cut the tops off the cupcakes to make room for filling. Notice how I cut it out so that the bottom is narrower and the top is wider. This will help to place the cupcake top back on so it fits properly while allowing a lot of filling.
I used a regular spoon and just filled as much as I could into each cupcake, then replaced the same exact top that I had just cut out.
Now get your frosting. I don’t like to have so many kitchen gadgets so I put the frosting in a Ziplock bag and cut a small corner off to frost the cupcakes. If things get messy, which they usually do in my kitchen, you can use a butter knife to make the frosting look more pleasing.
I took the 4 strawberries I set aside and cut into 4 sections to have a little bit of decoration…I’m so fancy.
the best part
Take a bite and let me know what you think!
