Strawberry, Mint & Coconut Icing

When it comes to sweets, I'm not obsessed or anything. I mean, obviously I'm not anti-cupcake or anti-cookies. Who the hell is? But when it comes to sweet vs. savory, I will almost always want savory. However, I want to expand my culinary horizons (oy, that sentence is making me want to slap myself in the face) and bake more. Cupcakes are clearly the most obscure baked good ever. Isn't anyone going to discover how cute and delicious these things are? Come on. It's like a foodie secret just waiting to be uncovered.

All sarcasm aside, I decided I wanted to test out a recipe that I've seen over and over again but I wanted to add my own twist. Cream cheese frosting is something that rules. Hello, red velvet cake! I wanted to take matters into my own hands and experiment with my frosting daydreams (skinny!) and see what would happen. I was very pleased with the outcome so it's time to share:

*note: I used store bought chocolate cake mix. A total loser move, huh? This is me taking baby steps with the baking, alright. Let's concentrate on the icing :)

What You Will Need:

- Naked chocolate cupcakes baked & cooled ready to be iced

-About 2 cups of fresh strawberries (or thaw out some frozen ones if that's what you've got)

-About four fresh mint leaves (I used about two too many.)

- One package of non-fat cream cheese

-4 teaspoons of Splenda

-3 teaspoons of butter

1/2 cup of coconut milk

note: All of these measurements created enough icing to cover 15 cupcakes, and I still had more leftover.

1- Pour your strawberries into the food processor/blender (whichever you find is easier) until they are silky & smooth.

2- Once the strawberries are blended, add your coconut milk & sugar and blend all of that together as well. Once that is blended, then add the cream cheese & butter.

3- Mix everything together until it is resembling some type of whipped goodness. At this point, it's good to taste test it a bit to see what else you can add before the mint goes in. I realized I needed to put a couple more strawberries in with the mint leaves. Then hit that blender button!

4- Once everything is taste-tested and looking good, remove from food processor and pour into a bowl. You're going to want to let the icing sit for about 45 minutes before you ice your cooled off cupcakes.

5- And this is the outcome once everything is said and done! I decided that the cupcakes needed some accessorizing once they were iced. They were looking sad, so I crumbled up two Oreo cookies (put the cookies into a plastic bag & go over it with a rolling pin) and sprinkled them on top.

Overall, I think the taste is different and refreshing! The mint could be left out if you're not into the idea but I think it really gives it a little something extra and is the perfect compliment to the subtle taste of the coconut, chocolate and the refreshing strawberry.