Strawberry Hearts Cakelets

More sweets for your sweeties. This cakelet recipe was adapted from a strawberry cake recipe that was given to me by a co-worker years ago. I’ve since adapted it for cupcakes and now for cakelets. I couldn’t resist after finding this sweet little heart-shaped pan recently at Target. Recipe makes 8 cakelets.

Strawberry Hearts Cakelets

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

3 large eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sugar

3-ounce package strawberry gelatin

½ cup buttermilk

10-ounce package frozen strawberries, thawed

½ tablespoon melted butter for brushing pan

Strawberry Frosting

¼ cup butter, softened

1 pound confectioners sugar

1/3 to ½ cup juice drained from strawberries

Heat oven to 350 F. Using a pastry brush, generously coat pan with melted butter and flour it.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk eggs. Add oil sugar, gelatin and buttermilk. Stir vigorously until well blended. Add the flour mixture and blend.

Drain 1/3 to ½ cup of juice from strawberries and reserve for frosting.

Fold strawberries into batter. Pour batter into wells of the cakelet pan to ¾ full.

Bake 24-26 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Allow cakelets to rest in pan for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting, combine butter, confectioners sugar and strawberry juice. Beat until creamy.

(Recipe adapted from cooks.com)