Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes

Living in California, fresh strawberries are readily available and this time of year they are delicious! I've made these strawberry cupcakes a few times now and they seem to get better and better each time! 

I normally just add puree but I decided to fold in chopped up strawberries and it was a great addition! These cupcakes are moist, crumbly, and the fresh strawberry flavor makes all the difference!

I like to use a cookie scoop to get a relatively even cupcake size-- not to mention it makes for a much cleaner process!

I love the color of the cupcakes and how you can see the chunks of fresh strawberries in them when they are all baked up! 

I top these with a fresh strawberry icing and it is delicious!!! However, no matter what I try it is never a thick, "pipeable" icing. It is always a little on the runny side but since I know it's because of the amount of puree I add, I don't really mind! I love the strong strawberry flavor so I compromise on the thickness! 

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Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes

Yield: about 18

Ingredients 

Cupcakes:

1½ cups flour- sifted

1 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

¼ cup milk

2 tsp. vanilla

½ cup unsalted butter

1¼ cups sugar

1 egg

2 egg whites

2/3 cup strawberry puree

1-2 cups chopped strawberries

Frosting:

16 oz cream cheese

1 cup butter

2 tbsp. heavy cream

½-3/4 cup of strawberry puree, whole fresh strawberries in a food processor or blender and puree

3-6 cups of powdered sugar- sifted

Directions:

Cupcakes:

1.    Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pan with paper liners


2.    In the bowl of your stand mixer cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

3.    Add eggs, one at a time, and mix well after each addition.

4.    In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

5.    In a separate bowl stir milk, vanilla, and strawberry puree.

6.    Add ½ flour mixture and mix well.

7.    Add liquid mixture, mix well.

8.    Add remaining flour mixture, mix until incorporated.

9.    Fold in strawberry chunks.

10. Divide batter between cups, about ⅔ full.

11. Place pans in oven and immediately turn oven down to 325º. Bake for 20-25 minutes, turning half way if your oven (like mine) doesn’t cook evenly.

Frosting:

1.   In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth.

2.   Beat in heavy cream.

3.   On low, add strawberry puree and mix.

4.   Add in powdered sugar until desired consistency and flavor.

Thanks for coming, stay awhile, and return often! xoxo

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart Sprinkles' Strawberry Cupcakes Recipe

S'mores Cupcakes

I love summer time! I love spending all day at the beach or pool, laying out, swimming, BBQing with friends and family; nothing is better! Summer nights are equally amazing! Warm summer nights spent around the camp fire, fire pit, or bonfire on the beach-- roasting hot dogs and marshmallows! S'mores are a staple of summer time cuisine, and how could they not be?! They're delicious! We're lucky enough to have a fire pit in our backyard so we can go straight from the pool to sitting around the fire! Summer doesn't get any better! 

If you google "S'mores Cupcakes" you will find a lot out there! Although there are a lot of great recipes I could not get passed the fact that most that I found had an egg and cream of tartar based frosting-- I'm sure it's good but I wanted an actual marshmallow frosting so I decided to create my own and used Marshmallow Fluff in my frosting to get that true marshmallow flavor! 

With these cupcakes the fire is optional! You can take these to the beach, to a BBQ, or any fun event without needing a fire to get that great S'mores flavor! I chose to use my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe that I got from a friend-- it's delicious! The cupcake recipe calls for a cup of boiling water which makes the batter a very runny consistency; in order to avoid the mess that could be created by trying to fill the cups without spilling I use a "pancake pen" a friend of mine gave me as a housewarming gift a year or so ago. It is seriously a life saver! 

I made an easy graham cracker bottom out of some mashed graham crackers, butter, and sugar. I can't decide if the graham cracker bottom or the marshmallow frosting is my favorite! I usually break the S'more's rules and leave chocolate off mine; but with this chocolate cupcake sandwiched in between the marshmallow frosting and graham cracker bottom, I'm tempted to never leave the chocolate out again! 

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S'mores Cupcakes

Yield: about 3 dozen

Ingredients 

Graham Cracker Bottom:

20 graham crackers, finely crushed

½ cup butter- melted

⅓ cup sugar 

Cupcakes:

2 cups sugar 

1¾ cups all-purpose flour- sifted

¾ cup Hershey's cocoa

1½ tsp. baking soda

1½ tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

½ cup vegetable oil

2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup boiling water

Frosting:

1 cup butter- softened

1-2 cups powder sugar

1 tbsp. vanilla

2 7oz. containers of Marshmallow Fluff

Directions:

Graham Cracker Bottom:

1.   Crush up graham crackers in a Ziploc bag.

2.   In a bowl stir melted butter, sugar, and crushed graham cracker.

3.   Evenly divide between pans and use the bottom of a glass to press graham cracker down

4.   Bake at 350º for about 8 minutes, until golden brown

Cupcakes:

1.    Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pan with paper liners


2.    In the bowl of your stand mixer stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt

3.    Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla; beat on medium for 2 minutes (until well mixed).

4.    Stir in boiling water until batter is mixed (it will be a runny consistency!!).

5.    Pour batter on top of graham cracker bottom, filling them about 2/3 full.

6.    Place pans in oven and immediately turn oven down to 325º. Bake for 20-25 minutes, turning half way if your oven (like mine) doesn’t cook evenly.

Frosting:

1.   In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat butter and powdered sugar until smooth.

2.   Beat in vanilla extract.

3.   Beat in marshmallow fluff until well incorporated.

4.   Garnish with graham cracker and chocolate.

Enjoy!

Thanks for coming, stay awhile, and return often! xoxo

Red Velvet Cream Cheese Cupcakes

I love red velvet cake, cupcakes and especially The Cheesecake Factory's Red Velvet Cheesecake! Yumm!! What I don't love, is what a pain red velvet cupcakes can be to make! Well, thats what I use to think until I found Lorann Professional Kitchen Red Velvet Bakery Emulsion! I love the color it gives the cake and the flavor is pretty good also, as long as you add some cocoa.

In order to make this process as easy as possible I like to start with a vanilla cake mix as my base. I add heavy cream, milk, and melted butter which gives the cake a super moist creamy red velvet flavor! I only add a couple tablespoons of cocoa because I don't like a real chocolately flavor and I add a little extra sugar to make sure the cocoa doesn't make the cake too bitter. 

Typically with a box mix you just throw it all in and mix it up but in this case I like to start with the dry ingredients and make sure the sugar and cocoa is well incorporated into the mix before I start adding the wet ingredients. Once everything is all mixed up I can already tell it's going to be great based on the batter color! Isn't it pretty?!?!

Like most cake mixes the cupcakes don't rise all that much so I tend to fill my cups pretty full, I find it easier to decorate cupcakes that are at the top or just below it when they're done. I have a great cookie scoop that I bought from Target that helps me to get almost even cupcakes, although no matter what, they are never even! 

There is nothing better on red velvet cupcakes then creamy cream cheese icing! I like my cream cheese icing to have a strong cream cheese flavor and therefore use a lot of cream cheese in it! This icing is definitely less sweet then buttercream because I tend to use a lot less powdered sugar. 

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Red Velvet Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Yield: a little more than2 dozen

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

1 box of vanilla cake mix

2 tbsp. Hershey’s Cocoa Powder

1 tbsp. sugar

½ cup melted butter, cooled

1 cup heavy cream

½ cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 eggs

2 tbsp.  Lorann Professional Kitchen Red Velvet Emulsion

Frosting:

½ cup butter-softened

16 oz. cream cheese

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

1½ cups of powder sugar

Directions

Cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. 
2. Add cake mix, cocoa, and sugar to bowl of your stand mixer, mix on low until well mixed. 
3. Add heavy cream, milk, butter, and vanilla. Mix on medium. 
4. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. 
5. Add emulsion and mix well. 
6. Divide batter evenly between paper lined cups. Place pans in the oven, immediately turn oven down to 325º. Bake 15-20 minutes, turning half way through if your oven doesn’t cook evenly.

Frosting:

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer combine butter and cream cheese; beat on medium-high until smooth, scraping sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed. 
2. Beat in the vanilla extract. Turn mixer down to low and begin adding sifted powdered sugar until desired consistency. 
3.  Frost cupcakes once cool.

Thanks for coming, stay for awhile, and return often! xoxo