Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

I've been on a cupcake kick lately. There was some talk of cupcakes a couple months ago and after a less then flattering fit in the grocery store, cupcakes have been the go-to sweet in this house. I'd like to say that it was my four year old (I'd even be willing to say it was my ten year old) that threw the fit, but it wasn't. It was me. After some soul searching, I resolved that I am a grown up and I am paying for all the groceries. If I wants cupcakes (or cup capes as the Eve L insists on calling them) then I can make them. Damn it.

Really it wasn't soul searching. Like I do that. It was M telling me he wasn't going to the store with me ever if I act like that again. And I really shouldn't be allowed to go to the store by myself. A simple list (butter, eggs and cilantro) turns into 200 dollars worth of "we MIGHT need this".

So strawberry lemonade cupcakes. The idea started out at raspberry lemonade cupcakes for a friends birthday. There is a vat of frozen strawberries acquired from an undisclosed location that needed to be used. Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes were born. To be completely pretentious and better than everyone else, I will quote my demons favorite Neil Gaiman story. Ahem. Some people have great ideas maybe once or twice in their life, and then they discover electricity or fire or outer space or something. I mean, the kind of brilliant ideas that change the whole world. Some people never have them at all. I get them two or three times a week. Happy Father's day.

What I did.

-1 box of lemon cake mix (I used Betty Crocker because I'm a whore for Box Tops)
-about half a cup of pureed and strained frozen strawberries

I mixed the cake batter as the box tells us to. I saved a little more than a cup of batter in a different bowl and added the pureed mess. Then I added about a teaspoon of lemon zest to the lemon batter. Two tablespoons -ish- of lemon cake batter in the cupcake cups, a tablespoon -ish- of the strawberry batter then topped it off with the lemon. Swirled with a knife (standard marbled cake treatment) and popped them bad boyz in the oven.

They baked for about 19 minutes in my oven at 350 and came out just fine. The second batch yielded 6 cupcakes, but they still needed 19 minutes.

Frosting! I didn't measure anything (ya, i know. "but you're baking! you MUST measure!" you come here, say it to my face then wash all the extra dishes you just made me dirty) so these are "ish" measurements. I liked where she was going with this as far as the frosting goes. So I tried it. I doubled it because that's how I roll.

1 cup of butter (sweet, salted butter)
1 cup (more or less) strawberry puree
some lemon zest (less than a teaspoon)
a squeeze of lemon juice (about a tablespoon)
almost a whole box of powered sugar (missing about a cup)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

All that got mixed in that order. My oldest helped turn the bowl Isn't he helpful.

Almost finished...

This what they look like on the inside. Because I had to look...

And that's it. They tasted like I had hoped. Like strawberries and lemons.

Now my steak is ready. Go meat!