Neapolitan Cupcakes

I love that Hannah loves to bake. I am not the greatest baker- it is so precise and often things do not turn out the way I want them to. Which is why I am so glad that Hannah loves it, and that she is so good at it. And that cupcakes are her "thing" because eating cupcakes is one of my favorite things! Check out these Neapolitan cupcakes- we had to explain the concept of Neapolitan ice cream- vanilla, chocolate and strawberry all in the same container- as she had never actually seen that before, but she loved the recipe without even getting the Neapolitan reference. And these are soooooo yummy!



Neapolitan Cupcakes

1 box white cake mix
½ tsp. vanilla
1 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 oz. semisweet chocolate, melted
¼ cup strawberry preserves
Red food coloring

1. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Divide cake batter evenly among 3 bowls. Stir vanilla into batter in one bowl. Stir cocoa powder and melted chocolate in batter in second bowl. Stir in strawberry preserves and enough food coloring to turn batter pink in third bowl.
3. Spoon 1 Tbsp. of the strawberry batter into the bottom of each prepared muffing cup. Add 1 Tbsp. chocolate batter and top with 1 Tbsp. vanilla batter. (Cups will be 2/3 full.)
4. Bake about 15 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in muffin tins on wire racks for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from tins and allow to cool completely.

Ice Cream Frosting
4 oz. cream cheese
1/3 cup butter
¼ cup ice cream
2 tsp. vanilla
5 ½ cups powder sugar

1. Allow cream cheese and butter to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Allow ice cream to soften at room temperature for 10 minutes.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Beat in vanilla and then powdered sugar. Beat in melted ice cream until frosting reaches piping consistency.
3. Tint half of frosting pink with red food coloring. Spoon pink and white frostings side by side into a pastry bag. Pipe frosting over cupcakes to look like soft serve ice cream. Chill until ready to serve.