Valentine's Day Cupcakes!

 

Valentine’s Day Strawberry Cupcakes

What better way to show someone you care then baking them strawberry cupcakes just in time for Valentine’s Day?

These cupcakes have a delicious strawberry taste in both the cake and the frosting. Fresh strawberries and strawberry extract give them their flavor.  I modified a recipe I found on the Simply Sweet Bakeshop blog. This recipe makes 18 cupcakes, so you have a few extras to share!

Cake Ingredients

½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
3 egg whites
2 tsp strawberry extract
1 cup pureed fresh strawberries

¼ cup sour cream

1 ½ cups cake flour (or make your own 1 ½ cups of flour – 3 TBSPs + 3 TBSPS cornstarch)

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

Strawberry extract can be hard to find in stores but can be found online.

Directions:

1.       Preheat oven to 350

2.       In a large bowl, beat sugar and butter until fluffy. Add egg whites one at a time

3.       Stir in strawberry extract, pureed strawberries, and sour cream

4.       In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt

5.       Add the flour mixture to butter, beating until combined

6.       Pour batter into cupcake pans

7.        Bake for 15 – 20 minutes (mine were closer to 18)

8.       Let cool before frosting

 

 

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

¼ cup butter, softened

1 8oz package cream cheese, softened

2 tsp strawberry extract (I only used 1 because I wanted the frosting to have more of a cream cheese flavor)

6 cups of powdered sugar

Pink food coloring (I didn’t use food coloring because the strawberry extract was colored

Frosting Directions:

1.       In a bowl, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth

2.       Add strawberry extract

3.       Add food coloring until desired color (if needed)

4.       Gradually beat in powdered sugar until smooth

For frosting, I think no matter what the recipe calls for in terms of powdered sugar, you should add until the frosting is at the consistency you would like. Adding more will make a stiffer frosting, but it may taste sweeter then you would like.

Now it is time for the fun part – decorating! The cupcake wrappers I used are ones that don’t fade when you bake them. Often times, the wrappers color will change and won’t look as nice. These wrappers are lined in foil so there is no change. You can find them at any craft or baking supply store. I like using different frosting tips while I am decorating my cupcakes so there is a variety of textures. For these Valentine’s Day cupcakes, I used red and pink sugar and conversation hearts.

A great treat for anyone special in your life J