Saturday, August 13, 2011

Strawberry Cupcakes

Last night we had our friends Rod and Pam over to celebrate Pam's birthday with a cookout dinner. Jason grilled steaks and shrimp, and I made potato wedges, green beans, and a salad. I also made strawberry cupcakes for dessert! They turned out so good :)


Pam wanted me to make her something out of the cupcake book I got as a wedding gift


After looking through it, I decided on the Strawberry Cupcakes.
The first step is to preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Then line a 12 cup muffin pan with liners.
Next chop up the strawberries, the recipe calls for a 1/4 of a cup.
Then add 2 tablespoons of strawberry jam or preserves (I used Smuckers Simply Fruit Strawberry).
Mix the two together.
Next, the dry ingredients: Flour, baking powder, and salt
Whisk together 1 and 1/4 cups of flour, 1 and 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
Then, beat 1/2 cup of room temperature unsalted butter and 3/4 cup of sugar together at medium to high speed with an electric mixer (I used my new Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer!)
Beat until fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes.

The next ingredients: 3 egg whites and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Add the egg whites and the vanilla extract to the sugar and butter mixture and beat until combined.
Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with 1/3 cup of milk in 2 additions. Beat just until combined.
Fold in the strawberry mixture.
Divide the batter among the muffin cups.
Bake the cupcakes at 350 degrees for 25 minutes- until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes for 5 minutes in the pan then allow them to finish cooling on a wire rack for about an hour.

Next is the frosting! I used a recipe for strawberry buttercream from a Southern Living Cookbook. This recipe usually frosts a three layer strawberry cake, so I halved the recipe. I still had some left over! You will need 1/2 cup of butter, softened, 1 16 ounce package of powdered sugar, and 1/2 cup of chopped fresh strawberries. Beat the butter on medium speed for 20 seconds until creamy. Then add the powdered sugar and strawberries. I put the strawberries in first, then added the sugar in small amounts.
Beat on a low speed until creamy.
Here is the finished product: Strawberry cupcakes with Strawberry buttercream icing!


These turned out really good. I definitely recommend the recipe. We all ate 2 cupcakes :)