Week 4: Strawberry Cupcakes!

Well since its almost February and I already have my heart table cloth out, which I am pretty sure I put out the first or second week of January, I figured its finally time to start on all the pink/valentine's themed cupcakes that are sitting in my cupcake pinterest board.  Pretty sure I just wrote a run on sentence, but it is what it is though Jess may yell at me for it! :) I did debate for a while between chocolate chip cookie and the strawberries, and strawberries were buy one get one free, so clearly the choice became a lot easier!  This was also a change from chocolate which the last two had in them.

I got the recipe from: http://apronofgrace.com/2011/rose-bouquet-strawberry-birthday-cake/

Yield: 3 dozen cupcakes

Ingredients

Strawberry Cake

• 1 cup Butter
• 2 & 1/2 cups Sugar
• 2 Egg Yolks
• 5 Egg Whites
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 teaspoon Red Food Coloring
• 1 & 1/4 cups Pureed Strawberries
• 3 cups Cake Flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• pinch Salt
• 1 cup Buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, beat butter with sugar for 3 minutes.
3. Add egg yolks one at a time, then the vanilla, food coloring and strawberries, beat for another 3 minutes.
4. Sift dry ingredients and add to butter/egg mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
5. Mix just till combined.
6. In another bowl and clean beaters, beat egg whites till stiff and add in an increment of 3 to cake batter, being sure to fold in thoroughly but gently.
7. Bake for 18 or so minutes for cupcakes and 20-25 minutes for 9 inch round cake pans.
   
   Before icing!

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 - 8oz Cream Cheese, room temp
• 1/2 cup Butter, room temp
• 1/3 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 teaspoon Red Food Coloring
• 1 lb. Powdered Sugar

1. In a medium bowl, add cream cheese and butter, whip till light and creamy, about 3 minutes.
2. Add liquids and blend.
3. Slowly add powdered sugar while mixing, (to keep the sugar from decorating your counters and appliances, not including you.)
4. At this point you may need to add more powdered sugar. You are trying to achieve a medium stiff consistency. Whip for several minutes.
    
   Finished product:
   
   

  My Notes:

*Puree the strawberries was interesting, I ended up using a whole container of strawberries.  It was a little more than what the recipe called for but it worked.
*I also ended up using some splenda sugar blend to substitute the regular sugar as I ran out of sugar.
*The batter was a little odd looking to me, but it came out fine.  The only thing is that the cupcakes caved in a little and to me it was a dense cupcake instead of light and fluffy, but they tasted awesome.
*The icing is really sweet to me, but I think it’s a good balance with the cake.

Love always, aloterella :)