Strawberry Mousse Cupcakes

Remember the Berry Mousse Cake recipe I posted a couple of months ago? Well, this is the same thing, only in glorious cupcake form. I took these for a test run on our 4th of July pool party at Dr. Dowse's and they were a big hit. It is one of those desserts that ends up all over your face, but you couldn't be happier about it. Let's get started, shall we?

 Strawberry Mousse Cupcakes

by Melissa Yoder

1 box white cake mix (I like Duncan Hines), prepared into 24 cupcakes

4 oz. Cool Whip, thawed (half a container, and lite is fine)

4 oz. cream cheese, completely softened (half a brick)

1/2 cup strawberry jam or preserves

1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

Cool Whip and sliced strawberries for the top

Prepare cupcakes according to package directions. Let cool completely.

For the mousse, beat together the softened cream cheese, jam, and sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Fold in Cool Whip. Cover and place in fridge until needed.

When cupcakes are completely cool, cut a small hole in the center of each cupcake that reaches 3/4 down with a small serrated knife or a cupcake corer. Remove cake centers and set aside. (You won't need them.)

Fill icing bag with chilled mousse and pipe into each cupcake hole:

 

Pipe remaining mousse onto the tops of each cupcake:

 

Dollop a little Cool Whip on top:

Garnish with washed, sliced strawberries.

 

 

 YUM

  

 

 Look. At. That.

When you take your first bite, you will be in creamy strawberry heaven. And then the rest of the cupcake will be gone in 4.2 seconds.

Keep refrigerated until ready to eat, and store leftovers in the fridge. They taste great the next day, but after that, the cake becomes a bit soggy. Better to just eat them all at once. :)

July 4th

We had a lollapalooza of sorts this 4th of July. We started off at 7:30 am with a ward breakfast that we had to help with.

Correction: Mark and Madelyn started off with a ward breakfast at 7:30 am. There is no wayyyy I was getting out of bed that early for some church event. Sorry, I am not a morning person. Besides, Luke and I had been up till 1:00 am the night before baking cupcakes.

Anyway, Mark and Madelyn went and had a good time, but I don't have any pictures from it. I'm sure you'll survive.

Then Mark had to head straight over to the Cedar City parade lineup, because his boss was making him walk behind his truck and throw out beach balls to the kids lining the streets. Mark was not excited about this. He hates publicity and can barely stand to even go to Walmart with me because he gets recognized by a lot of people.

 

 We didn't get there till the parade was halfway over, but that was okay because Mark was #59 in the lineup and we went to the end of the route. It was hot!! We lucked out and found a tree to sit under in front of the post office.

 

 We didn't have to wait too long before the Premier Pediatrics truck drove by! They were out of beach balls and wrist bands at that point, though.

 Madelyn had been dying to be in the parade and so got to ride on the back of the truck for the rest of it. She was thrilled.

Luke and I stuck around for the end, which consisted of all the fire trucks in town blaring their sirens at the same time. Small towns....

 

 When Mark and Madelyn finally found their way back to us, snow cones were necessary. Then we went home.

 

 Not for long, though. I had to finish the strawberry mousse cupcakes (recipe to come), and then Dr. Dowse wanted us to come to his house for a BBQ/pool party.

He has quite the property, I am telling you.

Perhaps Mark should have been a doctor instead? Nah...

These little fish had SO much fun. Luke launched off into Mark's arms about 42 times in a row. (He was counting...)

Madelyn has figured out that going underwater is not so bad if you plug your nose. Since swim lessons were always disastrous for her, I'm just happy she's gaining confidence in the water.

How about that playhouse!

We had some awesome food and had a great time with the Dowse family/friends/neighbors. Madelyn's been begging to go back already.

We had to drive home around 4:00 pm and send Madelyn over to a birthday party, which we were all supposed to go to, but just sent her. Luke needed a nap and I had to get ready for company to come over. We got a huge rainstorm with lots of thunder and lightning, which was SO NICE. We hadn't had rain in at least two months, if not three. Also, there was a wildfire blowing our way the night before that had choked the air with ash and smoke. We really needed that rain.

Then, at 5:30pm, my brother Kevin came up with his family. Madelyn came home and was so cute with her cousin Gary.

He's a happy little kid! Love him.

 

 

 We ate dinner and then Madelyn and Hattie came out and told us they needed "some Chinese music". ??? I didn't think we had any Chinese music, but it turns out we have the soundtrack to Hero. Then they did an interpretive dance for us for several minutes, and Jack joined in. It was fantastic, I should have recorded it. They were very expressive.

It started to get dark, and we were about to head out for some fireworks, but then it started raining again. Eventually, it cleared and then everyone in the neighborhood started lighting theirs up, too.

 Last year, we weren't allowed to do fireworks because of drought conditions, but this year they allowed them--and had ok'd the use of these big mortars. They were so loud!! One of our neighbors was shooting them off as well.

 

 Kevin was so excited to use his torch.

 

 

 Mmmm, I love the smell of smoke bombs....

 Then we went up the hill to watch the city fireworks at 10:00pm. About 6 or 7 times, it appeared that there were misfires that created huge fireballs and smoke. But I found out the next morning that the explosions were intentional and were created with leftover rocket fuel from some sort of training. It was wild. 

We enjoyed the show and then came back and ate some cupcakes. It was quite the day!! We were partying till 11:00pm!

The next day, Luke was taking a nap and Madelyn was playing the xylophone one minute and then the next she had just zonked out on the floor. We've all had trouble recovering from that one day.

Thanks for sticking with me through another long post! Hopefully it will be the last one for a while.

Roomie reunion

 This is me and my roommate Vanessa Harston when we were students at U of U. 1999, baby!!! I was 18, she was 19. THOSE WERE THE DAYS!!! This was us at the Salt Lake Temple.

 She came to visit me the other day. She has three kids now! We've seen each other periodically throughout the past 14 years (gaak, 14 years) but now she lives in San Jose, CA where her husband works for Apple Corps as a programmer.

Fun fact, her husband and my husband were on missions at the same time, and we both were writing to them/sending them packages during our roommate-ness. And then we married them! (Vanessa went on a mission to Argentina first, though.)

 

 Madelyn and Luke had so much fun with Mardson, Pene and Stott. Mardson is currently visiting his grandparents in Paris, France, where they live. I am jealous of a 7-year old.

 (Stott)

Vanessa went up to spend a week with her family in northern Utah and on her way back home decided to come back and stay with us for a night. She'd contracted an e. coli infection over the weekend (the town's water was contaminated) and she wasn't up to a super long day in the car.

 Madelyn was sooooooo excited to have her first friend sleepover. Those kids were bouncing off the walls till midnight! Now I understand why my parents weren't fond of sleepovers, haha.

I'm glad they got to come and stay and play though.

 

(pic from Oct, 1999) It's amazing how a randomly assigned dorm roommate for one year made such an impact on my life. ♥ you, Vanessa May!