Strawberry Cupcakes

Third times a charm!

I absolutely love anything with strawberries.. and of course I love strawberry cupcakes! But I've tried making strawberry cupcakes two times already and they did not turn out that well. There was always something wrong. So this third time, I was determined to fix whatever mistake I made and make something delicious. 

I used the same egg-less chocolate recipe Leah and I posted before, because I thought the flavors of the chocolate cake would go well with the strawberry frosting. The strawberry frosting was something I sort of put together as I went along, and surprising it came out pretty well..not to mention it's gorgeous light pink hue.

Here are the ingredients that you need:

• Cream Cheese - 2 tablespoons
• Butter - 1 stick
• Fresh Strawberries - about 5 strawberries, pureed in a food processor 
• Confectioner's Sugar - 3 cups
• Vanilla extract - 1/2 teaspoon
• Milk - 1/2 teaspoon

1. Cream together butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy.
2. Add two cups of confectioner's sugar and mix well.
3. Add one tablespoon of the pureed strawberries at a time.
4. Add the rest of the confectioner's sugar to get a thick enough consistency.

When you add the strawberry puree, don't add too much at a time. I think that's the mistake I made before. I added too much strawberry at once without mixing and the frosting began to turn grainy in texture. So with each tablespoon addition, mix well and check the frosting's consistency!

 This picture doesn't do a great job of showing the light pink color of the frosting, but I promise that the frosting will be pink! If you want a darker shade of pink you could always add some food coloring!

Chocolate Turtle Cupcakes With A Simple Vanilla Frosting

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LORI! 
This Friday was one of our good friends, and fellow baker's birthday! Hannah and I thought long and hard about what to bake her. We wanted to do something unique and fun and we eventually settled upon this very special sea-worthy cupcake.

The base of our cupcake was an egg-less chocolate cake recipe. At first, we were a bit hesitant to use this recipe since we never made a cupcake without eggs. But we were pleasantly surpised by how enticing and moist they were! Hannah and I are actually even thinking about making them our go-to chocolate cupcake recipe.

We tweeked the original recipe just a little, by substituting the cup of water with a cup of milk. The frosting was a very simple vanilla that finished the cupcake off perfectly. As you will see later, we topped the cupcakes with goofy turtles that are just so cute! They make us smile every time we look at them! We hope you enjoy our recipe!

The original recipe said that we should just put all the ingredients into a bowl and mix, but we decided it was best to sift the flour and other ingredients for a nice light cake. It was definitely worth it and we highly recommend it!

Our cupcakes came out beautifully, if we do say so ourselves. They had a nice rounded top to them, just the way we like our cupcakes to look! The recipe called for 16 cupcakes, but we were only able to get 12 cupcakes and about 6 mini cupcakes. 

Egg-less Chocolate Cupcake Recipe
adapted from http://www.food.com/recipefullpage.do?rid=105594&scaleto=16

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon vinegar

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder on parchment paper.
3. Measure the wet ingredients of oil, milk, vanilla and vinegar in a large measuring cup.
4. In a large bowl, add 1/3 of the dry ingredients then 1/3 of the wet ingredients.
5. Mix well and continue to alternate with the wet and dry. 
6. Fill cupcake tins about 2/3 full and put them in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

Now on to our delicious frosting..
Leah and I have made so many variations of vanilla buttercream/creamcheese frosting and today we sort of just eye balled everything and it came out pretty well! By just using these few ingredients you can make your own vanilla frosting that basically goes well with anything!

Vanilla Butter/Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:

• Confectioner's sugar - about 2 cups
• Milk - about 1 - 2 tablespoons
• Vanilla Extract - about 1 -2 teaspoons
• Butter - 1 stick @ room temperature
• Cream Cheese - 2 - 4 tablespoons

1. First cream together the butter and the cream cheese with a hand mixer.
2. Add one cup of confectioner's sugar at a time and mix well.
3. Add the milk and vanilla extract to adjust the flavor and consistency of your frosting.

The ratio with these ingredients were all about personal preference! Both Leah and I love the flavor of vanilla so we ended up adding about 2 teaspoons (maybe a little more) to our frosting!

Here's how it came out!

After cooling the cupcakes, frost them with a generous layer of frosting, and lastly add the candy turtles.

The instructions on how to make the candy turtles are right on this website: http://family.go.com/food/recipe-852443-squirt-happy-turtlecakes-t/

* 1 helpful tip: use a rounded cookie cutter to cut the arms and legs of the turtle!

Are these turtles not the most adorable looking candy creatures ever?

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes with Citrus Glaze

Spring Break 2012

It's spring break and Leah and I were craving some lemon flavor! We spent hours looking for a decent recipe with lemons and we contemplated whether to make a lemon pie or not..but we came across a delicious recipe in The Cupcake Diaries book and thank goodness we did. Katherine and Sophie from DC Cupcakes have never let us down with any of their recipes, and this one was no different.

This cupcake has a subtle lemon flavor and the fresh tangy blueberries in the cake perfectly complements the lemon! But we were craving that sour and tangy lemonade-like flavor.. and we got the perfect amount of that from the citrus glaze. It was absolutely delicious!

The batter looked somewhat like this with some lemon zest..

And with our delicious fresh blueberries..
*at first, we added 1/2 cup of blueberries, but then we decided to add some more and it turned out great. Personally I wish I put another handful into the batter..
*so adjust the amount of blueberries to your liking!

After they were taken out of the oven.. look at those blueberries!

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes with Citrus Glaze Recipe

from The Cupcake Diaries By Katherine Kallinis and Sophie Kallinis LaMontagne

Cupcake Recipe

Makes 12 cupcakes

(the book says 12 cupcakes, but every time we make these cupcakes we end up with at least 18)

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups whole milk, @ room temperature
• 2 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, @ room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs, @ room temperature
• juice and zest from 2 lemons
• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries (or frozen)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
3. Combine milk and vanilla in a bowl.
4. In another bowl with a stand mixer (or a handheld electric mixer) and cream together butter and sugar for 3 - 5 minutes, until light and fluffy.
5. Add the eggs one at a time, mix slowly after each addition.
6. Slowly add one third of the dry ingredients followed by one third of the milk mixture.
7. Mix slowly until fully incorporated.
8. Add the lemon juice/lemon zest.
9. Using a spatula, gently fold the blueberries into the batter.
10. Fill the baking tins about 2/3 full and bake for 16 - 18 minutes (start checking at 15 minutes).

Now for the delicious Citrus Glaze!
Both Leah and I agreed that the glaze was a bit weird in consistency/texture. We're not sure why, but the glaze came out a bit grainy-- maybe it was because we did not sift the powdered sugar. It could something else, but we suggest you guys sift the sugar beforehand just to be safe. Also make sure the glaze is well mixed before heating it in a small saucepan.

Other than that, this Citrus Glaze was just so fruity and lemony and just went so well with the cupcake!

Citrus Glaze Recipe

• 1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar (sifted)
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
• 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Whisk together the confectioner's sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla extract in a small bowl.
2. Heat in a small saucepan on low heat until fully incorporated.
3. Cool for 10 minutes before pouring the glaze over the cupcakes!