I decided to satisfy my sweet tooth last night by making Strawberry and Mascarpone Filled Cupcakes from a recipe I found on foodnetwork.com.  Having never filled cupcakes before, it was an interesting experiment, but fun and delicious nonetheless.  Also, clearly I’m no cake decorator.  First bites and recipe after the break.

Cupcakes

The Money Shot

I think next time I try these, I’ll go ahead and make cupcakes from scratch (why ruin a good recipe with boxed stuff?) and use fewer strawberries in my filling because it came out a little soupy and was hard to get into the cupcakes. I also used canned frosting since this was a last-minute experiment. However, the cupcakes were very good and the filling provided a nice surprise at the first bite:

Jessica's First Bite

Mario's First Bite

Strawberry and Mascarpone Filled Cupcakes
Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis

Total Prep Time:    1 hour 25 min

Level:     Easy

Serves:     12 servings

Ingredients

• 1 box vanilla cake mix (like Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe French Vanilla cake)
• 1 (8-ounce) container mascarpone cheese, chilled
• 1/2 cup thawed and drained frozen strawberries
• 1/4 cup sugar, plus 1/2 cup
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Directions
Special equipment: 1 muffin tin

Make the cupcakes according to package instructions. Lightly grease the muffin tin and fill the batter almost to the rim of each muffin cup. Bake according to package directions and let cool.

In a food processor combine the mascarpone cheese, strawberries, 1/4 cup sugar, and lemon juice. Process the mixture until smooth. Transfer the strawberry mixture to a pastry bag fitted with a small tip. Push the tip gently into the bottom of a cupcake and squeeze in the strawberry mixture until the cupcake plumps. Continue with the remaining cupcakes.

In a small saucepan bring the 1/2 cup sugar, water, and vanilla extract to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer until the sugar is dissolved. In a medium bowl combine the vanilla syrup with the confectioner’s sugar. Stir until smooth. 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.