Strawberry Cupcakes

I made these for Easter. This was a pretty simple recipe. It's not a hardcore homemade strawberry cake, as it has Jello in it, but I'm not going to judge it for that. The flavor was good and didn't taste incredibly artificial despite the Jello. The frosting was really the best part of this cupcake (isn't it always?). It's a cream cheese buttercream and oh so good.

Southern Style Strawberry Cupcakes (from Ezra Pound Cake) 

• 1 (18.25-ounce) box white cake mix (I used Funfetti because it was all I had. It was festive.)
• 1 (3-ounce) box strawberry-flavored instant gelatin
• 1 (15-ounce) package frozen strawberries in syrup, thawed and pureed (I pureed a container of fresh strawberries. The cake was still plenty sweet without the syrup strawberries.)
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup water

Prehead the oven to 350. Line your muffin pans with cupcake papers. In a large bowl combine the cake mix and gelatin.  Add strawberries, oil, and water and beat until smooth. Divide the batter into the cups. Bake for roughly 20 minutes. 

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting (also from Ezra)

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup strawberry puree (Measure it from the leftover puree you made for the batter.)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Up to 7 cups confectioners’ sugar

Beat butter and cream cheese until creamy. Beat in the strawberry puree and vanilla until smooth. Start adding confectioners' sugar until you reach the desired consistency. 

Fruity waffles

This isn't really a recipe, but more of an idea I had while making waffles. I've been adding various fruits to our Bisquick mix and it has made our lives more exciting (what can I say, we live in Dillingham). So far I've added strawberry puree and grated pear. I usually add a bit of vanilla to the batter as well. For the pear I added cinnamon and nutmeg. I think it's pretty tasty and a way to add a bit of fruit to your diet. The pear had a very subtle flavor, I think because I grated it. If you want more pear taste, I would suggest chopping it up in chunks. The strawberry waffles were a pretty pink color. So, if you have a little girl in your life, she might enjoy them. I didn't really do anything differently with the recipe, just added the fruit. It was easy. Here are some pictures of the finished result.

They look like there's not fruit! You can be sneaky.

I pureed the strawberries with the milk the recipe called for. It looks like a milkshake.

The pink color is subtle, so boys would probably eat it too.