This blog entry has been several weeks in the making. Initially, I had made the cupcakes to serve at a games night with some good friends, but then poor Cecil got sick and we had to change our plans. I knew Mike and I couldn't eat 2 dozen cupcakes, so I froze them immediately. Then, I had a gathering with some friends and I defrosted the cupcakes, made the frosting, and bingo cupcakes in a flash. There were a few mishaps along the way, but overall I liked the recipe and it was perfect during fresh strawberry season. I used this recipe for Easy Strawberry Cupcakes. I started by prepping my muffin tins and preheating my oven to 350. Next, I mixed together the cake mix, pudding mix, Greek yogurt, oil, water, eggs, and vanilla. Then, I gently folded in the diced strawberries. I baked the cupcakes for about 22 minutes and let them cool completely. Then, I ended up freezing them. I pulled them our the night before I was using them, so they had time to thaw. A few hours before my gathering, I made the frosting. I started by beating the butter for about 5 minutes. I must admit, it was a hot day and I feel like I may have overbeat the butter because the texture was a little off on my frosting. Next, I added in the powdered sugar, making a huge mess of my kitchen, which is the norm when working with powdered sugar. I added in the vanilla and strawberry purée. I added a lot of strawberry purée because I wanted a great color and strawberry flavor. I felt like the extra strawberry helped the frosting lose some of the overly sweet taste. I was a little bit worried about the frosting melting off the cake, so I did some major fridge rearranging to get the cupcakes to fit for a little bit. Then, I bought beer and had to make the decision which to keep in the fridge-cupcakes or beer. The beer won, because nobody likes warm beer. The cupcakes seemed to go over well at the gathering, despite the frosting being slightly melty. Afterwards, the remaining cupcakes went into the fridge. The next morning, the frosting was the perfect consistency and it made a delightful breakfast cupcake. Overall, I think this was a good recipe. I hope to try them again, when I have the time and weather to make them right.

The New Austonian