Strawberry Cupcake Surprise!

Strawberry Cupcake Recipe
White Cake Mix
3 oz. Strawberry Jello
2 Tablespoons Oil

1 1/3 Cup Water

3 Eggs
10 oz. Frozen Sweetened Strawberries

Combine these ingredients and then add a thawed and drained package of frozen strawberries. Save the juice. Bake according to the directions of the cake mix.
Top with Icing made from 1 box of 10x sugar, 1 stick of butter, and enough strawberry juice to make smooth. Beat to fluff at high speed of mixer.

GROCERY GOODIES
This is actually a strawberry cake recipe of one of my best friend's mom that she made for me on my birthday but since it was so incredibly delicious I decided to pick this as my first challenge. I was actually expecting it to be very hard considering it was such a yummy cake, but it turned out to be a much more simple recipe.

First off, I started by going to the grocery store and getting all the ingredients I needed for birthday goodies I was planning on cooking. I had a lot of them all ready in the apartment thanks to my cooking roommates, definitely no thanks to me. Since I know nothing about cooking I spent most of the time picking out the ingredients on the phone with my mom, it's embarrassing I know. I even asked how much 3 oz. of Jello was, I then looked at the box and realized that all the boxes of Jello are 3 oz. It took me about 15 minutes searching through the frozen strawberries trying to find 10 oz. I could find 8 oz. and 16 oz. and then I didn't know how I would ever be able to measure out 10 oz. with my pathetic cooking mind. Then right in front of my face I saw a 10 oz. package of sweetened frozen strawberries. So have no fear there is a 10 oz pack out there, Birds Eye frozen strawberries in "delicious syrup".
When I went down the aisle to get "10 times sugar", of course I had no clue what that meant. "Sugar times 10 of what?" My mom just laughed at me and told me that 10x sugar was powdered sugar or confectioners sugar and I would need a whole box to make frosting. Well now that I had all my ingredients it was time to get cupcaking!

COOKIN' UP CUPCAKES
I started by getting out all the ingredients I was going to be using and by getting out the mixer to put them all in. I also got out other bowls to keep on the side to mix things in. I preheated the oven so it would be nice and toasty for my cupcakes when it was time. First I mixed all the dry ingredients in the mixer together, and I mixed the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. It is a good idea to crack the eggs in another separate bowl and not straight in with your wet ingredients so shell doesn't get in it. I learned this the hard way. I started to crack my eggs straight into my water and oil and got pieces of shell all in it and had to fish it out with a spoon. The next two eggs I cracked into a separate bowl and then added them in with the oil and water. That worked out much better. Next I added my wet ingredients into the mixer with my dry and turned on the mixer at a nice "cake speed". Then it was time to add in the strawberries. I had them sitting out so they had defrosted some but I still had to microwave them for a little while. I put them in a bowl completely unwrapped in the microwave and did them on defrost for about a minute. They were still pretty frozen so I kept doing 30 second increments. Once they got mushy, but not too mushy, I took them out. I used a colander with a bowl under it to save the juice. I chopped them up in the colander and the bowl being under it saved all the "delicious" juice for the frosting later. I'm sure something smaller or with more tiny holes would have been better but we didn't have such a thing in our apartment. Once they were all chopped up and I had enough juice I added them into the batter and turned the mixer back on. When it was all mixed together and smooth looking I turned off the mixer and decided it was time to put in the cupcake liners! Once the tin was all lined I started to pour in the batter.

Here is where I made a mistake. This recipe made a lot of batter, since it was meant for a big cake, and I only had one cupcake tin. The tin only made 12 cupcakes at a time. I should have gotten a bigger cupcake tin or two cupcake tins. Especially since I was making them for a lot of people I didn't plan well enough ahead. So I had to keep doing rounds of cupcakes, once one was done I would stick another one in and wait around for it. It was just very time consuming. On the bright side I got to decorate while the others were in the oven!

Yes, I decorated with icing and sprinkles. Never again will I eat strawberry icing or use sprinkles. I don't even like icing and If I have a cake I like them icing free. So while I am making this icing I am getting it ALL OVER my hands and having to lick it off every second because I don't want to waste anymore paper towels. Remember I am a college student. I did enjoy this icing when I had it in a small dose, but I don't think I will be eating it again anytime soon. I suggest mixing all the strawberry juice you have left into the frosting, the more the merrier. The sprinkles also made a huge mess everywhere but they sure looked cute! Decorating the cupcakes was by far the best part of cooking the cupcakes and they turned out delicious! That was the vote of the birthday girl herself, and of many other taste testers I had try the cupcakes.

THIS GETS VOTED BIRTHDAY YUM!