Home Cook: Homemade Strawberry Cupcakes for a Summer Birthday Treat
We will be the first to say that our baking skills are limited. Extremely. Limited. Baking strips away everything that we love about cooking--the throwing of this or that into a dish because you have faith in it, or the ability to toss in all of your ingredients at once like your own secret potion and hope for the best. Our ideas on baking are frighteningly similar to why we chose to go to a liberal arts college. Not to say that we're not good at following directions, rather we prefer to take the scenic route and interpret them our own way, with a finished product that's just as good or sometimes even better than what's expected of us. But baking from scratch scares us. And no matter how gently we close the oven door each time or struggle to make sure that every ingredient is exactly "room temperature," we can still manage to make the flattest chocolate chip cookies you've ever seen.
Months before a best friend's birthday dinner that we were planning to host, we had decided to "go big" and attempt to make the Cherpumple. In theory, it sounded like a great idea and knowing that we would never make such a dessert just because, our friend's birthday presented the perfect opportunity. (What could be better than the "turducken" of desserts as a birthday gift?) But as the dinner grew closer we realized just how extreme--and EXPENSIVE--this project was going to be; three frozen pies, three boxes of cake mix, three containers of frosting... three new cake pans to fit the sucker, and not to mention the entire day it would take with our less-than-amazing baking skills to assemble this pie-cake mother of all dessert beasts. All together, it was too much.
The day before the birthday dinner, the idea of making strawberry cupcakes came to us by complete chance. We had rushed into Metropolitan Market to buy a doughnut for a friend, but it was the pink muffins on display that we couldn't take our eyes off of. Rather than wanting to buy one, we more importantly wanted to know what was in them that gave them such a beautiful color--was it strawberries or rhubarb? Then, as if he was reading our mind, a man in street clothes standing next to us opened the pastry case, removed one of the muffins and broke it in half, giving us a piece. "Don't worry, I work here." He said, as we stared at him in complete disbelief. The muffins were undoubtedly strawberry and with one single bite we knew exactly which dessert would have the power to trump the Cherpumple on our friend's special day.
NOTE: For those of you that don't have the time or the want to bake your own strawberry cupcakes from scratch (we totally understand), the muffins in M.M.--which are just as good, though they don't include frosting--are still available!
Homemade Strawberry Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
As we searched for the perfect strawberry cupcake recipe (we hate having blind faith in the internet when it comes to recipes!), many of them called for butter cream frosting, which we decided that we would not be making. Instead, we chose to go with a strawberry cream cheese frosting since it can be made quickly and easily in the food processor. We will also add, that though we have a great fear of baking, these cupcakes turned out much better than we could have ever hoped for, giving us a much greater confidence in sharing this recipe with you.
Strawberry Cupcakes
As adapted from Martha Stewart.com
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups of fresh or frozen strawberries, thawed
- 1 tsp. of honey
- 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1/4 tsp. of coarse salt (we used sea salt)
- 1 tsp. of baking powder
- 1/4 cup of whole milk, room temperature
- 1 tsp. of pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup of sugar
- 2 large egg whites, room temperature
- 1 large egg, room temperature
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners; set aside for later. Place your strawberries and honey in a food processor and process until pureed. You should have about a cup of strawberry puree, add more strawberries if necessary and save any extra puree for the frosting; set aside.
In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a small bowl, mix together the milk, vanilla, and strawberry puree; set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until well combined and fluffy. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and slowly add the egg and egg whites until just blended.
With the mixer on low, slowly add half of the flour mixture; mix until just blended. Add the milk mixture; mix until just blended. Slowly add the remaining flour mixture, scraping down sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary, until just blended.
Divide batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups. Transfer the muffin pan to the oven and bake until the tops are just dry to the touch, 22 to 25 minutes. Transfer the muffin pan to a wire rack and let the cupcakes cool completely in the pan before frosting.
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
Taken from Joy of Cooking
Ingredients:
- 8 ounces of cold cream cheese
- 6 Tbsp. (or 3/4 stick) of unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 tsp. of vanilla
- 3 cups of powdered sugar, sifted
- Leftover strawberry puree, to taste
Preparation:
Combine all of the ingredients and pulse just until the frosting is smooth and creamy. If you have a large Ziploc bag handy, spoon the frosting into what is now your very own pastry bag. Seal the bag, cut off one of the bag corners, and pipe the frosting onto your cupcakes accordingly.
NOTE: If you are without a food processor but have an electric mixer, here is a cream cheese frosting recipe just for you.
