Strawberry Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

What you'll need:

- Pillsbury Pink Lemonade Cake Mix

- 1 cup of water

- 1/3 cup of oil

- 3 whole eggs (alternative: 4 egg whites)

- 5-6 fresh strawberries

- Your favorite frosting 

After a misty and muggy morning, and a round of classes, I decided to buckle down and bake. Everyone who knows me, knows that I am a "stress baker," which means I love to bake when I am stressed about something (it usually takes my mind off of it). That doesn't seem to be the case today, I just wanted to bake something. So after a little trip to the grocery store and picking up my special ingredient (strawberries), I began my baking extravaganza! 

I didn't make anything complicated today, I just used a good ol' box of Pillsbury Pink Lemonade cake mix. First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees (my oven takes a year to warm up... damn thing). For the batter you'll need: 1 cup of water, 1/3 cup of oil (I like Crisco Veggie oil), and 3 whole eggs (or 4 egg whites if you want to be healthier). Its quite simple; all you need to do is whisk the dry cake mix and wet ingredients together for about 2 minutes (don't worry there will be a little bit of clumps still). Then pour your batter into the cupcake/muffin pan; don't forget to line the pan with cupcake liners (mine happen to be a halloween-polka dot mixture). After pouring the batter in the pan, about a 2/3 of the way full (a 1/3 cup measurer helps get the right amount into the little cups), you'll need to wash, dry, and cut up your strawberries into little bit-size pieces and stick them into the batter in each individual cupcake. This adds flavor and a little bit of fruit to the treat! 

Once the oven is preheated, stick them into the oven for 18-22 minutes. Since I added fruit into the batter, I kept them into the oven for 21 minutes and they came out perfect! Let them cool on a cooling rack before you frost them (or the frosting will melt and go everywhere). I used Pillsbury Whipped Supreme Confetti Vanilla frosting; plus it came with sprinkles. You can never go wrong with sprinkles. 

And voila! You just made a modified pink lemonade cupcake!

My mom always told me that when you cook or bake, you can stray from the recipe and modify it to your liking! So don't be afraid to try something new when you are cooking. You may just like it :) Enjoy!

- The College Baker