Strawberry Cupcakes

Since I've been trying to catch my blog up to speed with things I've made, these are a must.  I had to attend a Farm Bureau Strawberry Social this past summer.  The idea is that Farm Bureau members host an adult and kid friendly pizza party to get people out and about and to learn more about Farm Bureau.  It's locally famous because Farm Bureau gets several gallons of vanilla ice cream and strawberries and this is the main attraction for dessert.  Meanwhile, everyone brings dish and enjoys.  Think giant community potluck.  If not sure what Farm Bureau is, definitely look them up at http://www.fb.org/.  They are a great organization that does a lot of lobbying for farmers and nature lovers alike.
  I decided that I needed to stick with the theme of the party and go with something strawberry.  The only problem with these cupcakes was that my strawberry butter cream broke, meaning that it wasn't light and fluffy like it should have been, I think I over whipped it.  But this recipe is something that you definitely need to try, they were a huge hit and went really fast.  People raved about the light lemon tang and fresh strawberries in the actual cupcake itself and the strawberry butter cream was good enough to eat with a spoon.

Ingredients
1 box of Betty Crocker Butter Cake mix
Butter, eggs, and water called for on the cake box
1 1/2 cups finely diced strawberries
1  tsp of finally minced lemon zest
1 Tbsp of Lemon juice

Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/8 tsp salt
1 (16 oz) package powdered sugar
1/2 cup of fresh strawberries, chopped
additional strawberries to garnish

Directions
Heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Put liners in the cupcakes pans.  Finely dice 1 1/2 cups of strawberries and set them aside.  Open the cake mix and take two Tablespoon of dry cake mix out of the bag, put into a small bowl.  In a big bowl, add the remaining cake mix, water, butter, eggs, lemon juice, and lemon zest.  Mix according to the package directions.  Once that is accomplished, add the reserved dry mix to the strawberries and mix to coat the strawberry pieces (this will keep the strawberries from sinking to the bottom of the cupcake).  Add the strawberries to the cake mix and fold them in gently.  Scoop the cupcakes batter into the cupcake pans with a large ice cream scoop, this gives you even cupcakes and better baking.  Gently pick up the trays to about six inches above the counter and drop them gently on the counter.  This gets all the air bubbles out of the cupcakes.  Place in the oven and bake for the time on the box.  To check if they are done, insert a toothpick in the center of the cupcake and make sure it comes out clean.

Let the cupcakes cool completely and then frost.

For frosting.  Dice the strawberries into very fine pieces.  In a large bowl, put the softened butter, salt, powdered sugar and strawberries.  Beat until smooth.

To garnish, slice a strawberry in half, place cut side down on a paper towel for 5 minutes to absorb the juices.  Then garnish and serve!