Recipe: Semi Homemade Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Creamcheese Frosting

I've been trying to figure out what dessert I should make for Valentine's Day. I don't have a Valentine but I think it'll be fun to bring a little treat to the girls I work with. There are really quite a few options for pink and red desserts for the holiday but I started flipping through my old pictures and found these. Chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese frosting. It brings in the colors and flavors that make me think of heart day.

I made these originally for my birthday way back in September. I made red velvet cupcakes from scratch and then didn't feel like searching for a chocolate cake recipe... I know, really lazy... But I cooked my entire birthday dinner by my lonesome, so I figured one set of cupcakes with a shortcut wasn't that bad.
Luckily, we had a box of dark chocolate cake mix, so I started with that.

I decided that I wanted to use the combination of chocolate and strawberry and made a Chocolate covered strawberry cupcake with a creamcheese frosting (which was easy since I was already making cream cheese frosting for the red velvet).

So here's my semi-homemade recipe:

For the cupcakes:
1 box of chocolate cake mix and all the ingredients indicated by the box.
12 small to medium strawberries, cleaned with tops removed

Preheat your oven to 350°F and follow the directions of your boxed mix.  Line your muffin tin with your choice of liner (maybe fun hearts for Valentines Day). Fill them about 3/4 of the way fill and pop a strawberry into each. Lower the heat to 325°F and pop your cupcakes into the oven for between 20-25 minutes or until the chocolate has set. The strawberries will cook down into an almost syrupy consistency.
Put them to the side to cool.
Let them cool fully before frosting.

For the frosting:
1/2 cup margarine (room temperature)
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese (room temperature)
1/4 to 1/2 a box confectioners' sugar (depending on your taste), sifted
4-5 medium strawberries, cleaned and then pureed.
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream the margarine and cream cheese with an electric blender. Then add the sugar a little at a time. Be careful, this can get messy if your not careful (this I know from experience)!Mix in the vanilla. At this point you could put the frosting into the fridge and use as a regular cream cheese frosting. It's quite delicious.
If you want a strawberry frosting, blend in the strawberry puree now.
I like to put the frosting into a ziplock bag, cut of the tip and decorate the cupcakes with a large swirl pattern. For the strawberry frosting, make sure you refridgerate for at least a half hour before decorating.

Forgive the messy frosting! I should have let the frosting sit in the fridge for at least a half hour before  decorating. 

Mine came out a little messy, but they were delicious and moist and a big crowd pleaser.

-Raspberry Truffle