Strawberry CupCakes

This is a very late post. I made these strawberry cupcakes for valentines day. But since I just started this blog, I am posting this recipe now.

I wanted to do something special for valentine’s day. I had this recipe for strawberry cupcakes and strawberry cream cheese frosting for a long long time. But the recipe seemed a bit complicated so I kept putting it off. But now I was bored with muffins, so wanted to try cupcakes with frosting! And valentine’s day seemed a perfect excuse for it.

The baking of the cupcakes were easier than I thought. But the frosting part gave me a migraine! I made a mistake of buying ‘spredable cream cheese’ instead of ‘block’ cream cheese. And so my frosting was too runny, for me to pipe it on the cupcakes. But it tasted so good, and I hate to waste good frosting, so I ended up spooning the runny frosting on top of the cupcakes.

I passed the cupcakes to friends, and they all were so thankful for the lovely valentine’s gift! They cakes were so moist, and so pink on the inside! I forgot to take a picture of the inside of the cakes. But they were so pink and yummy! Especially with the cream cheese frosting!

Strawberry CupCake:

Yield: 3 dozen cupcakes or 3, 9 inch round cake pans.

Ingredients

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

Directions

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

Cream Cheese Buttercream

Ingredients

• 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

Cooking Directions

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.