Strawberry Mini-Cupcakes

Here is a special and easy treat just in time for Valentine's Day!  I find it hard to get into the kitchen to bake.  Especially since I have a new helper.  The Little Guy wants to "help" all the time.  It doesn't matter if I am baking or making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  So I was happy to find a new and seriously delicious recipe that I could mix-up and bake all during naptime!  

This is courtesy of my "I wish we were BFFs" Giada.

Strawberry Mini Cupcakes

1 box white cake mix

1 cup water

2 egg whites

1/4 cup vegetable oil

8 oz marscapone cheese

1/3 cup frozen strawberries (thawed)

2 to 3 cups confectioners sugar

Mix the marscapone cheese, vegetable oil and eggs white together with a mixer.  Add your cake mix and the cup of water.  Marscapone is usually a desert cheese.  It is similar in texture and taste to cream cheese.  You can find it in the deli section of your grocery store.  I actually used the tiramisu flavoured version because it was on sale!

Fill your mini-muffin papers about 2/3 of the way full.  The batter is very thick so it is difficult to get it into the cups evenly.  Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes.

The icing is easy!  Simply puree the strawberries in the food processor.  Then mix the strawberry puree and confectioners sugar.  Drizzle the icing on top!

These are seriously good.  I'm not a huge cake fan and I could not stop eating them!  (Hence the picture above of the ugliest one...it was the only one left!!) The marscapone makes the cakes light and fluffy and moist.  And the strawberry icing is just sweet enough to make these perfect.  You could easily switch out some of the ingredients in these to change the taste.  Try a spice cake mix and a pumpkin-sugar icing.  Or maybe chocolate cake with a cherry-sugar icing.

Yum!!!

These are perfect little treats to make for your family or sweetheart for Valentine's Day!