Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes with White Chocolate Frosting

A lot of things go good in pairs:

Peanut butter and chocolate

Peanut butter and marshmallow fluff

Chocolate and coconut

Pie and ice cream

Clam chowder and sourdough

Margaritas and Mexican food

Coffee and Dorothy

The Real Housewives (of anywhere) and alcohol {for me, not for them}

A bath and a good book

The Soup and Friday night

Cupcakes and cheesecake

That last one; I've done it before. Remember those?

{Somehow, this week became "redo the recipe with new ingredients" week.}

But as soon as I realized that the ingredients for the Improv Challenge this month was to be Strawberries and Cream and that the "cream" could be cream cheese, I knew I had to make these. I've had so many Cheesecake Cupcakes in my head since January, one of them had to bust out before I burst.

I put out a call on Facebook for strawberry cupcake recipes. Ones with out chunks. (You know me. I don't like chunks.) Kim responded with an awesome recipe that is even better because it's a doctored cake mix.

I love those, especially when I'm making 8 dozen cupcakes.

Strawberry cupcakes. Cheesecake baked in. White chocolate frosting that is To. Die. For. (Seriously, it's lucky it made it onto the cupcakes. Spoon-worthy frosting, yo.)

Bliss.

Enjoy!

Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes
by Crazy for Crust

(Cupcake/Frosting recipe from Cups by Kim)

Ingredients

For the Cupcakes

• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup sour cream, room temperature
• ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 Strawberry Cake Mix
• 1 pound fresh (or frozen and thawed) strawberries, hulled and a little sugar or simple syrup, if needed to make ¾ cup of strawberry puree

For the Cheesecake

• 2 packs cream cheese (16 ounces), room temperature
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs, room temperature

For the Frosting

• 3 cups white chocolate chips
• ¾ cup heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line cupcake tins with paper liners. (The recipe will make about 30-36 cheesecake cupcakes.)
2. In a blender, puree the strawberries. You can add a little sugar or simple syrup if they need sweetening or a little juice or water if you need liquid for the blender to work. (This will make about 1 cup of puree. You won’t need all of it.) Set aside.
3. Blend eggs and sour cream with a mixer. Make sure they are room temperature first! Add in the butter and mix well. Alternately add cake mix with ¾ cup of strawberry puree until it’s all blended together well. Place about 2 tablespoons of batter in each cupcake liner (I used a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop for this.)
4. Make the cheesecake: Mix cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and eggs with a hand mixer until smooth. Drop about 1-2 tablespoons of the cream cheese mixture on top of the cupcake batter.
5. Bake about 15-18 minutes and let cool completely before frosting. (Note: the cupcakes can be frozen once cooled and frosted at a later date.)
6. Make the frosting: place the chocolate chips in a large bowl (that will fit in your refrigerator). Bring heavy cream just to a boil in a small saucepan and pour over chocolate chips. Stir until they are melted. Stir in butter until it’s melted. Place the bowl in the fridge and cool for at least 30 minutes, (I left mine about an hour), stirring every 15 minutes. Remove from refrigerator and beat melted chips on high with a hand mixer until it becomes fluffy and ready to pipe or spread. Pipe onto cupcakes. Store cupcakes in refrigerator.

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Talent Show Tuesday at Chef in Training, Trick or Treat Tuesday at Inside BruCrew Life, Cast Party Wednesday at Lady Behind the Curtain, Sweet Treats Thursday at Something Swanky, Chic-and-Crafty at the Frugal Girls, Tastetastic Thursday at A Little Nosh, Sweet Tooth Friday at Alli-n-sons, I'm Lovin' it Fridays at TidyMom, Sweets for a Saturday at Sweet as Sugar Cookies, A Well-Seasoned Life, Strut your Stuff Saturday at Six Sisters' Stuff, and all of these too!