Day 11 of Cupcake a Day in May happens to be Mothers’ Day, so it seemed appropriate to celebrate all those mums out there with something beautiful: Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes.
Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes
I’ve seen strawberry cakes floating around Pinterest (yep, Pinterest again, it’s a wonder) which have this wonderful pink interior, and are frosted with buttercream clearly made with pureed strawberries. All of these cakes have strawberry jelly in the batter. Which is really weird. But, you know, America. They probably know what they are doing. One recipe called Southern Strawberry Cake had a box of cake mix in it – I don’t do that. Another, called Strawberry Milkshake Cake was from a British blogger, and she pointed to the source of her recipe – Sweetapolita’s Strawberry Layer Cake. Now, Sweetapolita knows her stuff and also takes amazing photos. So I thought I would base my strawberry cupcake recipe from the source. I’ve adjusted a couple of the ingredients to suit my own sweetness taste, and I’m using a strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream, piped into pretty chrysanthemum like flowers.
Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes
Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Meringue frosting
makes 12
Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes
ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 package strawberry jelly crystals (40g)
125g salted butter, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup strawberry pulp
mixing
Line a 12 hole muffin pan with cupcake cases, and spray the cases with non-stick spray.
First, make the strawberry puree. You will need about 150 grams of strawberries for the cupcakes and frosting. Hull and wash the strawberries, then chop roughly. Then place in a small bowl of a food processor and process until smooth and then, if you don’t want seeds in your cake and frosting, pass through a fairly open meshed sieve (if the mesh is too fine you will be pressing the mixture through forever! ). Alternatively, you can mash the strawberries with a potato masher or puree with a stick mixer until you have a smooth pulp, the pass the pulp through a sieve. You should have a little over half a cup of strawberry pulp.
Sieving the Strawberry Puree
Now make the cupcakes. Beat the sugar, butter and strawberry jelly crystals until light and fluffy as shown below.
Butter, sugar and jelly crystals beaten until fluffy
Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Sift over half the flour and baking powder and mix well. Add the milk, and mix well. Repeat with the rest of the flour mixture, and then the strawberry pulp and vanilla.
Fresh Strawberry Cupcake Batter
Spoon the batter into the cupcake cases, and bake at 160 degrees Celsius for 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into a cupcake comes out clean.
Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes
Strawberry Meringue Frosting
ingredients
180g sugar
120g (3 large) egg whites
250g butter, softened
1/4 cup strawberry pulp
1 tbsp strawberry powder (I use Fresh As, but you could substitute strawberry jam)
pinch vanilla powder
mixing
Place the egg whites and caster sugar in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Whisk the mixture over the heat using a wire whisk until the mixture reaches 55°C. The mixture will foam slightly during the heating phase but will not take on the appearance of beaten egg whites. When the mixture reaches 55°, transfer the mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer (stand mixers are great for this, but you can do it with hand held beaters). Beat the mixture on high speed until it is room temperature. During this time, a marshmallowy meringue will form.
Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes
Enjoy!xxx
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