Strawberry Cream Cupcakes with #CoolWhipFrosting #Cbias

I’m no Martha Stewart, but I love to bake.  I consider myself an everyday mom. I have loved being in the kitchen for as long as I can remember. Baking now is therapeutic for me. Like my blog, baking keeps my mind from wandering into places I don’t like it to go. I wanted to make something special for my playdate friends Kim & Vanessa. I can’t believe we have been doing playdates with our kids for over 6 months! When we started going to play dates together Leo wasn’t sitting up. Now Leo is close to walking. We kept telling each other how we should bring food to our playdates. It hasn’t happened until now.  I decided on making Strawberry Cream Cupcakes using Cool Whip Cream Cheese Frosting. I found out about Cool Whip Frosting at Cool Whip on Facebook about a month ago.  As soon as I saw the announcement I knew I had to use the new frosting. I love anything with the name “Cool Whip” in it. Strawberry Cream cupcakes super easy to make. As a mom to a 10 month old I love anything I can do that’s easy.

Ingredients:
Box White Cake Mix + Eggs & Vegetable Oil Box Calls For
Strawberry Soda
Cool Whip Cream Cheese Frosting
Red Food Coloring
Red Sugar Crystals

Want to see my shopping trip to buy my ingredients? Check out my Google+ Album. 

 I preheated my oven to 350 degrees per the box mix instructions. In a large bowl I combined all of the ingredients. This is where the magic comes in. Prepare to be amazed.

Instead of using water as the box mix calls for I substituted with strawberry soda.  The box of cake mix I used called for 1 cup water. I used 1 cup strawberry soda instead. The batter’s consistency does change a little, but for the better! The batter becomes very fluffy. Continue to mix the batter for the same amount of time as you do with other cakes.   I lined my muffin tin with cupcake liners and filled each cup with about 2/3 full of batter. My cupcakes baked for about 17 minutes after getting cozy in the oven.

Now let’s talk frosting. Frosting is my favorite part of any dessert from a simple cake to a decadent cupcake. The problem? Frosting isn’t exactly the healthiest. What I love about the Cool Whip Frosting is that it’s a healthier option. Don’t believe me? I still had a container of Cream Cheese frosting sitting in my pantry. Take a look at the differences:

My regular container of cream cheese frosting has 23g carbs & 20 sugars. Cool Whip Cream Cheese Frosting only has 8g carbs & 8g sugars. That is a huge difference. When you taste Cool Whip Cream Cheese Frosting you won’t miss the extra sweet. It has the right balance of flavor. The frosting has an airy consistency kind of like a mousse. It reminds of me what a cloud would taste like if I could ever taste a cloud.

I added 15 drops of red food coloring to get a bright pink color frosting. After my frosting was colored I placed the container back into the refrigerator until my cupcakes were baked & fully cooled.  I don’t own any decorating tools yet so I always frost cupcakes using a sandwich bag with the tip cut off. You could go fancy by using a decorating tip but it’s not necessary. Frosted cupcakes without a fancy-schmancy decorating tip look good too.

After frosting the cupcakes I sprinkled red sugar crystals to give them a little bit of sparkle. These cupcakes tasted so good! The batter was fluffy and moist with a subtle strawberry flavor. The Cool Whip Cream Cheese Frosting was the perfect pairing for my cupcakes. Sometimes you have a cupcake that is so frosting heavy all you can taste is the frosting. That isn’t the case using Cool Whip Cream Cheese Frosting. I have a feeling Orange Cream Cupcakes, Raspberry Cream Cupcakes, and Peach Cream Cupcakes are in my baking future.

Kim & Vanessa were happy to see me on our playdate. Who wouldn’t be happy seeing a person bringing delicious cupcakes? Both of them let their little ones sample part of the cupcakes too. The children’s favorite part of the cupcake was definitely the Cool Whip Cream Cheese Frosting. Both of my mommy friends also enjoyed the cupcakes. They asked me how I made them and were surprised when I said I used strawberry soda. I might have inspired them to try something a little bit different with their baking.

The Strawberry Cream Cupcakes were a success. Even with me being an everyday mom I felt like I did really channel my inner Martha Stewart with these cupcakes. Any day can be a special occasion. All it takes is a little frosting.

I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Kraft Cool Whip.  #CoolWhipFrosting #CBias #SocialFabric. All thoughts & opinions expressed are of my own.