Quickie Apricot/Mango Cupcakes

I bust these out whenever I need cupcakes in a hurry.  They are essentially jazzed up cake mix cupcakes.  That being said, one of these days I plan to make them from scratch. I really have spoiled myself with homemade cupcakes by this point, as well as some of the people I bake for, haha, so I can imagine these being so much tastier once homemade.  If you ever see quickie in my blog titles, chances are it's a twist on a mix.

The ingredients couldn't be any simpler!

Quickie Apricot/Mango Cupcakes

• 1 box White Cake Mix, plus ingredients needed for mix (24 cupcakes size, normally you need eggs and vegetable oil)
• 1 can vanilla frosting (2 if piping frosting)
• 1/2 cup diced dried apricots (more for garnish if needed)
• 5-8 pieces of dried candied mangos, sliced thinly

~Follow the directions on the mix for preheating and mixing instructions, folding the diced dried apricots into the batter right before scooping the batter into your muffin tins.  Fold just until the apricots are incorporated. (I like larger cupcakes so I got around 22, and as always I checked 2 minutes before the earliest recommended baking time)

~After the cupcakes are fully cooled and frosted, garnish each with a few slices of candied mango. Now sit back and enjoy! 

The same could easily be done with the dried apricots, but I felt the flavors complimented each other nicely.  That and the mango pieces tend to look a little prettier and be a littler larger, so I prefer them.

I used white cake mix simply to highlight the flavors and colors of the apricots, but if you like a richer cake, feel free to try out yellow cake mix instead.

The most time consuming part of this recipe is dicing the dried apricots, haha, so you know why I call it a quickie.  Just like with my other recipes, I checked these cupcakes with a few minutes to spare, and they were done early.  A fun, simple way to jazz up some cake mix!