I’m not much of a baker, mostly because I hate following directions, but we threw our friends Brooke and Mads a surprise 1st Wedding Anniversary Party at Black Rabbit last night.  It was prime time for cupcakes (from a box, with alterations.)
I’d seen a few recipes for pink lemonade cupcakes floating around, and decided to add strawberry into the mix.  Based on the comments I got last night, this one’s a keeper.


Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes
For the cupcakes:
1 box of strawberry cake mix 1 can of lemonade concentrate
Follow the directions from the box!  Add in about 1/2 the can of concentrate. 
For the frosting (basic recipe via allrecipes) (please note that I royally screwed this up because I didn’t follow the recipe and the whole frozen strawberries thing messed up the balance.. my frosting was a creepy shiny jelly. Tasted good though!)
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened1/2 cup butter, softened2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar1 teaspoon vanilla extract1 cup of pureed strawberries (I bought bagged frozen ones and food processed them)zest from one lemonIn a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy (cream was used three times in that sentence.  Also, I used a food processor.) Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners’ sugar. Add in strawberry puree and zest. Mix well! 
I added a lemon drop candy to the frosted cupcakes.
Since everyone likes options, I made another flavor!

Vanilla Coconut Cupcakes
1 box of vanilla cake mix1 bag of shredded coconutFollow the directions for the cake mix.  Add in a cup of coconut.
Toast another 3 cups of coconut.  Heat oven to 350, spread the coconut on a baking sheet and throw in the oven until it starts to crisp and brown.  Lay out to cool.
Frosting is same as above recipe, minus the strawberry and zest.Once you frost the cupcakes, pile a heap of toasted coconut on top. 
Brooke and Mads were completely surprised (I had told them I was DJing and it was super important that they show up and support me. ha!)  and we all got to catch up and eat too much sugar and bask in their marital bliss.  Not to post a non-food picture, but I just love these guys!  Happy Anniversary!