Sweet Strawberries

I know I said I was going to talk about some lemon-blueberry cupcakes I have made, however I made strawberry shortcake cupcakes over the weekend and they are so fresh in my mind.  My husband had some friends over for a game night the other night, and I thought they would be perfect taste-testers for a new cupcake.  My husband loves strawberry shortcake, so we came up with a strawberry shortcake cupcake.  It is a yellow cupcake with a strawberry compote center and a strawberry buttercream.  Had the humidity not been so intense, my original frosting-a sweet whipped cream-would have survived.  Sadly, it was so humid that my whipped cream fell flat after just a few minutes.  And being the perfectionist that I am, I had to make a frosting that not only tasted great but looked beautiful.  The cupcakes still came out great, and my husband's friends seemed to like them.  So, add one more to the recipe box for the future bakery!

Fresh strawberries in the frosting add a sweet, natural touch to these cupcakes

Cupcake ingredients:
- 1 1/2 c all purpose flour
- 1 c white sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 c unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 large egg yolks, room temperature
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 c sour cream, room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

3. Using electric mixer, mix the butter, egg, egg yolks, vanilla extract, and sour cream until blended well.  I like to add the egg and egg yolks one at a time.

4.  Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until just blended, do not over mix.

5. Evenly fill the paper cups.  Baker for 25 minutes, until pale gold and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

6. Set on cooling rack to cool completely.  Meanwhile, let's start on the compote!

Strawberry Filling:
-32 oz fresh strawberries
- 1/4 c sugar
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- pinch of salt

1. Rinse, drain, remove caps and dice strawberries small. 

2. Place in a large bowl and add sugar.  Stir and allow to sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

3. After 30 minutes, drain the juice from the strawberries into a 1 cup measuring cup.  Add enough water to make 1 full cup, if necessary.

4. In a small saucepan, combine the strawberry liquid, lemon juice, cornstarch and salt.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture boils and becomes thick enough to coat back of spoon.

5. Remove from stove and cool completely.  Stir cooled mixture into strawberries and stir.  *I left the strawberries in chunks to add some texture, but you can always puree the filling if you like a smoother texture*

6. Now, to fill the cupcakes I used a small apple corer to create a hole in the center of the cupcakes. 

7. Fill each cupcake with a healthy amount of the filling, I tend to overfill a little to assure the cupcakes are full (this is where taking pictures throughout the process would be helpful!  Lesson learned.)

Using a corer helps to make perfect, uniform holes in the cupcakes.



Frosting time!

Strawberry Frosting:
- 1 c unsalted butter, softened
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 4 c powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 tbsp milk
- 1/2 c fresh strawberries, diced very small

1. In a large bowl, cream butter with electric mixer.

2. Add vanilla

3. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed.  Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. 

4. Add the milk and the strawberries and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.  I only used 1 tbsp of milk, because the strawberries add moisture too, but if you prefer a thinner frosting, add more milk.

5. Pipe or spread frosting onto cupcakes and this is what you get!

Now, there are some changes I might make to these in the future, just to try something different: I might make a strawberry mousse filling and try that sweet whipped cream frosting.  What do you think?

I bought some peaches at the store last night, so today the kids and I are going to test a peach cupcake with brown sugar frosting.  Feel free to drop me a line if you are interested in trying these!!

Cupcake Tip of the Blog
A new addition to the blog I thought might be fun was to add a Cupcake Tip of the Blog. So tip #1: if you let your cupcakes cool in the fridge, they will be firm and it will be much easier to cut/core out center. Also, make sure not to dig too far down, or else you will take paper liner with you!