These whimsical cupcakes are packed with strawberries — literally. Each has a juicy strawberry center covered with whipped topping and is finished with a super easy-to-make strawberry butterfly.
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 1 hr |
| Active: | 30 min |
| Yield: | 24 cupcakes |
Ingredients
- One 15.25-ounce box strawberry cake mix (plus required ingredients)
- 32 small strawberries with leaves
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- One .55-ounce piece green taffy, such as AirHeads® Watermelon
- One 12-ounce container frozen whipped topping, such as Cool Whip, thawed
Instructions
- For the cupcakes: Prepare the cake mix according to the package directions to make 24 cupcakes. Bake and let cool 15 minutes in the pan on a rack, then transfer the cupcakes to a rack to cool completely.
- Hull and chop about 8 strawberries (for about 1 cup chopped). Stir together the chopped strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in a medium bowl. Let stand at room temperature, tossing a few times, until the strawberries are juicy, about 15 minutes.
- For the remaining 24 strawberries, put a strawberry stem-side down on a cutting board. Make 2 crisscross slices down and almost all the way through the strawberry, stopping just before the stem to keep the stem end intact. Gently pull the 4 sections apart to form a butterfly. Repeat with the remaining strawberries.
- Make the antennae by cutting 2 thin strips of green taffy, about 1 inch long and 1 millimeter wide each. Roll the taffy strips between your hands to make ropes, and curl up one end of each rope slightly. Repeat, making a pair of antennae for the remaining 23 butterflies.
- To assemble the cupcakes: Transfer the whipped topping to a pastry bag fitted with a medium open star tip. Core the cupcakes from their tops with a small melon baller, spoon or paring knife. Fill each with some macerated strawberries and pipe a swirl of whipped topping on top to cover. Decorate each cupcake with a strawberry butterfly. Tuck a pair of antennae into the whipped topping behind each strawberry butterfly with the curled ends up and facing outward.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 24 servings |
| Calories | 132 |
| Total Fat | 4 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Carbohydrates | 22 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Sugar | 3 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
| Cholesterol | 11 mg |
| Sodium | 133 mg |
Reviews
I can make them for Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day!
My suggestion to the negative comments on the box cake mix, geeze make a cake from scratch then and use the ideas for the cupcakes! Really??? Great idea Food Network!! Thank You!!
Awesome cupcakes
As if everyone on this site makes everything from scratch. I thought they were a cute and fun idea on the fly.
I thought these looked interesting until I saw the recipe. Boxed cake mix and cool wip – Really??? The Food Network can’t do better than that? I have no interest in trying this recipe anymore, but give it 1 star based on the ingredients.
As suspected a cupcake that starts with a boxed mix is not going to be great. This one is no different. It tastes like a box mix with artificial flavors and coloring.
Boxed cake is okay but didn’t like the sugar and lemon added to the strawberries and using Cool Whip was not for me. I loved the idea of strawberry shortcake cupcakes but next time I will just Magic Bullet some heavy cream with sugar and put that in the center with the crushed strawberries and then pipe the real whipped cream onto the top. The strawberry butterfly was a nice touch.