I've had a weird day. At around 3:00 I felt the need to retreat to the kitchen to make these cupcakes, the concept of which I had been obsessing over for a couple of weeks.
I had seen the recipe for a three-layer cake on Joy the Baker, who got the idea from a cookbook called Sweets. The way Joy photographed this cake, along with her celebration of the combination of cake mix and Jello charmed me. It's also just about the girliest-looking food imaginable and I wanted it baaaaaad. But a three layer cake? With two sticks of butter in the frosting? It seemed more than a bit ambitious. So I decided to turn the recipe into cupcakes and use light cream cheese instead of full fat c.c. and butter x 2. I also decided to skip the coconut, no offense to the coconut (I'm sure it's great).
The (utterly delicious) batter came together in a matter of minutes, and I had loaded it into cupcake papers by the time the oven had preheated. Since I was on my own with these cupcakes, I filled them about 3/4 full and baked them for something like 24 minutes, during which time they expanded unnervingly over the tops of their designated cupcake areas. I loosened these overflow areas with a knife as soon as they came out of the oven, and they were OK if a little rough looking in places. So if you want to make prettier cupcakes, I'd fill them 2/3 of the way up and maybe take a little less baking time. Just watch them. Also, you'll have plenty of extra batter to bake (I'm guessing) a half dozen more or maybe even a smallish one-layer cake.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 (18.5 ounce) box white cake mix (without pudding)
- 1 (3 ounce) package strawberry Jello
- 1 T self-rising flour
- 4 t granulated sugar
- 3/4 C vegetable oil
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 C water
- 1/3 C fresh strawberries, finely diced.
Preheat the oven to 350.
To make the cake, combine the cake mix, Jello, flour and sugar in a large bowl. Mix well. Add the oil. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition (I used an electric mixer for this). Add the water and strawberries and mix well (I did this by hand). Fill cupcake papers 2/3 full and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean.
Let the cupcakes cool, still in their pan, for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, free the cupcakes and allow to cool completely.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1 (8 ounce) block 'neufchatel" (1/3 less fat) cream cheese, softened
- 1 t vanilla
- dab of red food coloring
- 1 C powdered sugar (or so)
With an electric mixer, fluff up the cream cheese for a few seconds. Then add the vanilla and powdered sugar and tint with food coloring, if desired. Frost a cooled cupcake and top with a sliver of a fresh stawberry for added cuteness.
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