Strawberry Mascarpone Cupcake for Krystal's Baby shower

Last year, we celebrated with my friend Krystal, with the celebration of welcoming her little girl into the world! Now we are celebrating Krystal's second baby! A Baby Boy!!

I feel like almost alllll of my friends are pregnant and am so excited to be celebrating virtually with Krystal! Hoping her little man will decide to stay put for the next week and then he can share birthdays with my sister!

With it still being spring, I wanted to make a lighter cupcake but I am really trying to steer away from cake mixes! This recipe I thought was odd because you melt the better with water but yet it turned out very good! The mascarpone filling was fabulous as well! I'm not much of an icing person and this cupcake had a thin glaze so not to overpower the cupcake in general.

Krystal, thank you for letting me celebrate this big day with you! I can't wait to meet your "cupcake"!!

A Big Thank you to Eva at Eva Bakes for hosting our Shower today!!!

Strawberry Mascarpone Filled Cupcakes

recipe adapted from this recipe at Bake-A-Holic, who originally adapted from this recipe at Food Network

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla 
• 1(8-ounce) container mascarpone cheese, chilled
• 1/2 cup diced strawberries (fresh)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2.  Melt butter and water in a saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil. 
3. In the bowl of your mixer, Mix the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, buttermilk, vanilla, and eggs in a bowl. 
4. Stir until well mixed.
5. Pour  butter and water into flour mixture with mixer on slow speed. 
6. Pour in muffin tin and bake for 13-15 min. 
7. Let the cupcakes cool.
8. While cupcakes are cooling, In a food processor combine the mascarpone cheese, strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice. 
9. Process the mixture until smooth.
10.  Transfer the marcarpone mixture to a pastry bag fitted with a small tip.
11.  Push the tip gently into the bottom of a cupcake and squeeze in the strawberry mixture until the cupcake plumps.
12. For the frosting: In a small saucepan make a vanilla syrup by bringing the 1/2 cup sugar, water, and vanilla extract to a simmer over medium heat.
13.  Boil until the sugar is dissolved.
14.  In a medium bowl combine the vanilla syrup with the confectioner’s sugar.
15.  Stir until smooth. 
16. Working quickly, use a rubber spatula spread the icing on the top of the cupcakes.( If the icing begins to firm up, place in the microwave for a few seconds to warm up again.)

Fresh Savings Event -- $25 Publix Gift Card Giveaway!!!

The information, products and General Mills gift pack were provided by General Mills and Publix® through MyBlogSpark.

I am probably one of those rare people that loves to go grocery shopping. I love to see the produce and the specials and the new items!

Publix is one of my favorite grocery stores! A grocery store that one only used to see in Florida while on vacation has slowly been coming into Tennessee. In fact, there is even one opening here in Cleveland at the end of the year. 

Publix is having a Fresh Savings event from now until May 8th! Publix has special savings in every aisle and even a site with coupons to help you save!

To Enter the giveaway let me know if you like grocery shopping!
 Giveaway will end Thursday, May 2nd.
Be sure to leave an email address so I know where to contact you!

Wordless Wednesday

Cake Batter Pudding Cookies

Jen at Beantown Baker is our host for this month's What's Baking?

She picked the awesome theme of SPRINKLES! I think with Spring acting more like Winter so far everyone needs this little burst of color in their life!

I actually add some leftover cake mix from making this dip and decided that these cookies would be a great way to use it up! 

Cole LOVED these cookies and kept asking for more yellow cookies. They were gone at our house within 48 hours of being made. I was actually surprised that my sister didn't care for them as much as I thought she would have because she loves anything cake batter.

I did find that these cookies were a little dry when I mixed them together and would recommend decreasing the amount of flour used that was in the original recipe.

Cake Batter Pudding Cookies

recipe adapted from this recipe at Chef In Training

• 1 1/2 sticks  butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 (3.4 oz) package instant vanilla pudding mix, dry
• 3/4 cup yellow cake mix, dry
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• sprinkles

1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. 
2. Stir together flour, salt and baking soda and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugars together.
4. Add in vanilla pudding and cake mix and beat until well blended.
5. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth.
6. Add flour mixture slowly until well incorporated.
7. Mix in sprinkles. (I used 2 sides of one of the 6 sided sprinkles containers.)
8. Roll into 1 inch balls and place on greased baking sheet.
9. Bake at 350 F for 10-12 minutes.
10. Enjoy!