Sometimes you just got to keep it simple

Last week I noticed that I had a tub of fresh strawberries in the fridge that were going to go bad soon....so of course I needed to bake something with them! I decided it was about time to make some cupcakes or ShortCakes.  Using my new food processor that my parents got me for Christmas....well actually the one they got me for Christmas came broken and I didn't try it out right away so they could not return it but my mom found a really good deal on another one and picked it up for me...long story short I am spoiled....back to the story...using my new food processor I pureed the strawberries.  Then I mixed up a batch of boxed white cake mix (something everyone should always have on hand).  I put a spoonful of batter in the cupcake liners then a spoonful of the pureed strawberries.  I then filled the rest of the liners with the rest of the batter.  While the cupcakes cooked I mixed up a batch of butter cream.  I love the recipe that comes on the back of the Roger Icing Sugar bag, but of course I had thrown the bag out and could not find the recipe online anywhere so I improvised and just mixed what I thought was the right measurements.  I then mixed the rest of the strawberry puree into my butter cream.  I didn't account for the extra moisture the strawberries would have so my icing was a bit runny and I had to use more icing sugar which=very sweet icing.  Now I am one for sweet icing but even this was pushing the envelope for me.  Next time I would not have added as much milk if using the strawberries again.  The final product was sweet but the tartness of the strawberry filling in the ShortCake balanced it out perfectly and I loved loved loved the pink color the strawberries turned the buttercream. They were eaten at work within minutes of being put out ...which is always the best test. The lesson in all this was use what you have, you don't always need to make a cake from scratch for it to be a hit, and it doesn't matter if it looks pretty or not if it tastes great that is all anyone will remember!!
Michelle