It was another sweet friend’s birthday Sunday and to show her a little love, I made her her favorite. Strawberry cupcakes! It’s not quite spring here yet, but these cupcakes helped us forget that completely. They’re so bright and sweet!

I got the recipe for this one from one of those sweet church-lady cookbooks in my collection. This recipe called for making a cake, but my sweet friend likes cupcake, so cupcakes I must make! This recipe was semi-home made, but completely delicious. It reminds me of a show I used to watch in college, Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee. I enjoyed how she used some packaged ingredients the average home cook would find at your average grocery store.

One swap I made was I exchanged milk for the water called for in the recipe. Another is that I increased the powdered sugar due to the runny consistency of the frosting. In Rachael Ray’s words I “eyeballed it.” I made sure the consistency was such that I could pipe beautiful, pink rosettes atop each beautiful pink cupcake with fresh strawberries nestled inside.

What’s your favorite cupcake?