Strawberry Cupcakes

These just might be my favorite cupcakes of all time. Fresh strawberries are pureed and poured into the batter turning the cakes pink. Then the cakes  are topped with cream cheese frosting that has a bit of sour cream and brown sugar in it. Mmmmmm. You can taste the strawberries in the cake and the tangy icing keeps them from being too sweet.

I dressed them up with little sugar paste bows brushed with edible shimmer powder to give to the three lovely ladies that are visiting this week. 

When I found out that some friends were going to be visiting I knew that I wanted to make something with all the summer fruit that I've been seeing. Originally I wanted to use peaches after buying some amazing ones from the market by my house.

But then I ate the peaches...they were really really good.

When I went back I noticed that the strawberries were finally worth buying.  Summer strawberries are a total different fruit than the disappointingly tasteless out-of-season ones. I decided to just buy them and search for something to put them into.

Not surprisingly, my search led me to Smitten Kitchen's recipe for  Pink Lady Cake. That site never lets me down. Strawberries taste amazing in pies and cobblers and tarts, but I wanted to make something that we could snack on while getting ready to go out. Plus, I love decorating cupcakes and how cute is pink cake? 

The batter for this cake is so so SO good. I've never been a fan of cake batter but this batter tastes like strawberries and sugar and all sorts of goodness. Its a miracle that I was able to stop myself from eating it all and get it into the cupcake papers.

The cupcakes baked perfectly after 20 minutes and made my whole apartment smell like strawberries.

While the cakes were cooling I made some cream cheese icing. Its my favorite icing but I hate how unstable it is and how it oozes instead of piping into designs. Icing sugar makes cream cheese icing stiffer and easier to pipe but adding too much takes away the tanginess of the icing. I decided to add some sour cream to the icing so that I could put in more icing sugar without making the icing too sweet.

I also added a little bit of brown sugar because my parents always serve sliced strawberries with topped with sour cream that has been mixed with brown sugar. I love that combination and I wanted the icing to taste a little bit like that.

Then all I had to do was top them off with little sugar paste bows that I had made the day before...

So cute and so girly!

Stawberry Cupcakes

(from Smitten Kitchen)

4 1/2 cups cake flour
3 cups sugar
5 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups pureed strawberries
8 egg whites
2/3 cup milk
1 to 2 drops red food dye (this just makes the pink colour pop, you don't need to add much)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a muffin pan with cupcake papers

2. Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixer bowl. With the electric mixer on low speed, blend for 30 seconds. Add the butter and strawberry puree and mix to blend the ingredients. Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes

3. In another large bowl, whisk together the egg whites, milk and red food dye to blend. Add the whites to the batter in two or three additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl well and mixing only to incorporate after each addition.

4. Bake the cakes for 18-25  minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

5. Let the cakes cool before icing.

 

Comments

[purpleracoon]

Wow, they look gorgeous! Would you say the cake flour is necessary, or do you think plain flour could be substituted for it?
How did you make the sugar paste bows?
[ http://sarahcooks.tumblr.com ]

[Mylifeunderthebus]

These look so good I can taste them !!! I'll have to try this one my kids love strawberries.

[hocus]

I love the colour of these! Even the batter looks irresistible.

[The-moss-garden.blogspot.com]

Wow, those look unbelievable!! Local strawberries are in season here too, so I may have to give these a try, although I don't know if I could make them look so pretty! Do you have a recipe for the icing?

[Kitchnbutterfly]

That pink rocks.........Daughter #1 would love it!!!!!!!1

[Diana Cannone]

Those cupcakes are adorable. I think I know what I'm going to do with some of the strawberries in my fridge now. My two daughters (7 & 3) will absolutely love the idea of pink cupcakes. =)

[Muchtomydelight.blogspot.com]

Those are so stinkin' cute!! They'd be absolutely perfect for a baby shower. I bet people went crazy over them!

[Kwanster.wordpress.com]

oh my! dont you have the best blog! i love all your posts! they are all so inspiring, cute, beautiful, awesome....jus so cool to look at!! great work!! xo

[Beckygarratt.blogspot.com]

These look so so tasty. I'm going to have to try making these!

[Sara]

These sound amazing! I'm going to do a test run of these, and if they are as good as I think, I'm going to make them for my friends wedding shower.

I'm interested to hear if you have a recipe for the icing? Sounds great as well!

[Stephanie]

Sara: When I make cream cheese icing I usually just use a package of room temp cream cheese, a couple of table spoons of butter (up to 1/4 cup) and then I mix in powdered sugar using a mixer until its the sweetness or consistency that I want. Tangy = less sugar but then its runny and doesn't pipe. More sugar and more butter = more stable.

[Natalie]

Hi, how did you do those sugar bows? they are adorable!

[jo-lyn's cup cakes n' candies]

How many cupcakes does this recipe make? These sound yummy and they are adorable!! =)

[remote spy]

Oh, god, I want to eat them very much, they look so attractive.

[keylogger for Mac]

I am enjoying this site, this site some great resource that you are providing and give it away for free....lol.

[cemone]

what is cake flour? is it self raising or pain as i have looked everywhere for cake flour and cant find it

[cemone]

I live in the uk so what would i use instead of cake flour as they don't sell it here

[table top fridge]

Those cupcakes are adorable. They'd be absolutely perfect for a baby shower.

[flash games download]

I love the colour of these! Even the batter looks irresistible.
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