Happy Valentine's Day!

I made these cupcakes for M's valentine's party at her preschool. The recipe makes enough to fill 2 large cupcake tins (24 regular sized cupcakes) or 2 mini cupcake tins plus almost one large cupcake tin (24 mini cupcakes plus 11 large cupcakes). Thanks to the strawberries, no food coloring was involved. I used frozen strawberries we picked last year at Sweet Berry Farms and froze. Mmm....quite tasty!

Strawberry Cupcakes
1 c fresh or frozen strawberries**
1 (3 -oz) package jello
1/2 c boiling water
3/4 c vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 (18-oz) white cake mix

Icing
1/2 c butter, at room temperature
3 1/2 c powdered sugar
about 1/3 c strawberry juice

**If using fresh strawberries, sprinkle with 1/4 c sugar. Let stand 1 - 2 hours. Then drain. If frozen, thaw, then drain. Reserve juice.

Combine jello and boiling water, stirring until dissolved. Cool (you can put in refrigerator to speed things up). Combine oil, eggs, strawberries, and jello. Sift cake mix into mixer bowl. Add strawberry mixture to cake mix, blending on low speed. Then beat on high speed for 4 minutes. Pour into muffin tins lined with cupcake papers. Bake 15 - 20 minutes (10 - 15 minutes for mini-cupcakes) in preheated 350 degrees oven. (I recommend putting the pans on two separate racks. From prior experience, if they are on the same rack, they burn because the hot air can't circulate properly around them.) Remove from oven and cool on wire racks. To make icing, beat together butter and powdered sugar until smooth, adding just enough strawberry juice to make a good spreading consistency. Ice the cooled cupcakes.