Lemon Poppyseed Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

I wanted to make these for the Scentsy Cake Party my friend Michelle hosted last weekend, but had a disaster of a time attempting to make strawberry buttercream from Martha. I think part of the problem was patience. And maybe lack of a candy thermometer. Too complicated for me. I didn't give up though, and found another recipe to work with and, voila, here they are.

To make these, first, take a lemon cake mix and follow the directions on the back of the box up until you pour in your desired pan, in this case, a muffin tin. Add 1 Tablespoon (or a little more) of poppy seeds to your batter and fold them all in. Bake as directed.

For the frosting, I tried this recipe with much better results than my first attempt at Martha's. I did alter it slightly. Here it is:

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
1/4 cup strawberries, pureed*
1 teaspoon vanilla
3-4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

*Next time I will use 1/3 cup, or even 1/2 cup, pureed strawberries to achieve a stronger strawberry flavor. The lemon cupcakes were just a little stronger and overpowered the strawberries.

Cream softened butter for about 3 minutes on slow, until smooth. Add strawberry puree and vanilla. Mix until combined. It will not seem perfectly combined, but smoothed together. Slowly add powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached - thicker for piping, thinner for spreading. I added just shy of 4 cups. Then, I used a Wilton 1M tip (my favorite) to pipe the frosting on top of the cupcakes. This recipe will frost about 12 regular cupcakes if using Wilton 1M tip, as it makes approximately 2 cups of frosting, give or take.

As tasty as these were, next time, I think I'll make some chocolate cupcakes and add the strawberry frosting, then garnish with a slice or two of fresh strawberry.

For more delectable sweet cupcake treats, check out this Cupcake only link party: