Recipe - Strawberry Preserves Cupcakes

I always preface my posts about baking with the disclaimer that I'm not a baker; though it may seem old, I always feel obliged to do it because I really am not a baker. I admit that with this recipe, I had to use some pre-mixed items but that was due to a time crunch. I have plans on making my own batter sometime in the near future. Anyhow, this notion of sticking strawberries into my cupcakes came about because I still had sauce left over from the strawberry pie. My friends' birthdays were coming up so I had a reason to make cupcakes. I didn't have a pastry bag with a metal tip to insert the filling so had to come up with a method without the use of fancy materials. Hopefully the following works out for you too!

Step 1: Ingredients (serving size: varies depending on cake mix)

• strawberry preserves
• 1 box of white cake mix (and all required ingredients)
• 1 container of vanilla frosting

Step 2: Making the batter
Follow the directions on the cake mix box for making your batter including pre-heating your oven appropriately. Mine required 3 egg whites, 1 and 1/3 cup of water, and 2 tablespoons of oil. Set out the cupcake liners in your cupcake pan.

Step 3: Filling the cups
Fill each of the cups halfway with batter. Using a small spoon, swirl a little indent in each and quickly pour in 1/2 a teaspoon of your preserves.


Step 4: Covering the cups and baking
The hardest part is to put the remaining batter into each cup. You don't want the preserves to spread out and just end up being a layer in the cupcake. To prevent this from happening, when you pour the remaining batter for each cupcake (you want to end with a little over 3/4 of the liner full), make sure you "seal" the edges with batter to prevent the fruit from moving. Basically, pour along the edges first and then cover the middle. This should trap your strawberries inside. Bake the cupcakes for however long your mix tells you to (until golden brown)!


Step 5: Finishing
I mixed my strawberry sauce into the frosting to make strawberry vanilla frosting to lather onto the cupcakes. I believe I added too much which made it more runny than I had hoped. Despite their ugly looks, they were delicious and my friends enjoyed them too. My next task is to make the batter without a cake mix but hoorah for successes anyhow!