Strawberry and Mascarpone Filled Cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the Cakes:
1 box white cake mix (or use 1 batch [500g] of this site's copycat recipe for Duncan Hines White Cake)
3 large egg whites
250ml buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla extract

For the Filling and Icing:
225g mascarpone cheese, nicely chilled (or use this site's recipe for home-made mascarpone)
100g frozen strawberries, thawed and drained
150g sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
4 tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla extract
250g icing sugar

Method:

For the cupcake batter, cream the copycat Duncan Hines cake mix until soft then add the buttermilk, vanilla extract and almond extract. Beat thoroughly then add the egg whites and beat to combine.

Divide the batter between the greased or lined wells of a 12-cup muffin tin, filling each well almost to the rim. Transfer to an oven pre-heated to 170°C and bake for about 15 minutes, or until the cupcakes are lightly browned on top and cooked through (a skewer inserted into the centre should emerge cleanly).

In the meantime, combine the mascarpone cheese, strawberries, 50g sugar and lemon juice in a food processor. Process until smooth the scrape the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a fine tip.

Once the cupcakes have baked, allow to cool for 5 minutes then turn out of the tin. Invert them, make a small slit in the base (cut through the base of the paper cases if using) then insert the tip of the piping bag into this and pipe the filling into the cupcake until it plumps up. Set aside to cool completely.

Combine the remaining sugar and water in a saucepan. Heat until the mixture simmers and the sugar melts. Take off the heat, allow to cool slightly then beat in the vanilla extract.

Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, pour in the sugar syrup and mix to combine. Beat until smooth then, using a rubber spatula spread the mixture over the top of the cupcakes (if the icing gets too hard you can soften by heating briefly in the microwave).

Allow the icing to harden before serving.