It’s strawberry season… so I’ve been told.  I forget every year until I start seeing strawberries everywhere and I’m drawn to them by their hypnotic aroma.  Yes… the aroma tends to put me in another realm and I forget where I am.

Since I’ve been in a cupcake haze the last few weeks and exploring [...]]]>

Strawberry Short-Cupcake

It’s strawberry season… so I’ve been told.  I forget every year until I start seeing strawberries everywhere and I’m drawn to them by their hypnotic aroma.  Yes… the aroma tends to put me in another realm and I forget where I am.

Since I’ve been in a cupcake haze the last few weeks and exploring different types of filled ones, it’s only natural I would focus on what’s in season… but what kind of filling?  I thought about making a strawberry-rhubarb but couldn’t find any rhubarb…. so good ol’ strawberry it is!!

I researched different white cakes and found they all looked pretty similar.  I compared a recipe by Martha Stewart and another site… I can’t for the life of me remember where where the “Classic White Cake” recipe came from because they all are alike, with variations on the amount of sugar…

I wanted to make mini cupcakes… the recipe I found made three 9″ layers, so I roughly adjusted it down to 25%… but the measurements are exact.  For the filling, I decided to make up my own recipe.  I chose a vanilla meringue buttercream as it is much lighter than a traditional buttercream and adapted it from an online recipe credited to Martha Stewart.

Mini Strawberry Short-Cupcakes (makes 24 minis)

Ingredients

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature.

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons cake flour

3 oz whole milk

2 large egg whites, lightly beaten

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup evaporated cane sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pan with liners.

Whisk together egg whites, milk, vanilla and almond extracts in a small bowl and in another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat butter until  for about 1 minute, then slowly add sugar while continuing to mix until incorporated.  Continue beating until light and fluffy – about 2 minutes with a stand mixer and several minutes with a hand mixer.  With the use of a hand mixer… it was not getting “light and fluffy” so I added a about a 1/4 of the egg-milk mixture (this seemed to work).  Scrape down bowl.

Alternate flour mixture and egg-milk mixture until fully incorporated, scraping down bowl as needed.  Batter will be very thick.

Scoop batter into cupcake liners, about 3/4 full.  Place in center of oven, middle rack.  Bake 12 – 13 minutes.  Test with cake tester until it comes out clean and tops will be springy.  Cool on wire rack.

Strawberry Filling (makes 1 cup – enough for 24 mini cupcakes)

8 oz strawberries, washed and hulled

¼ cup evaporated cane sugar

juice from ¼ lemon

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 Tablespoons cold water

1 rounded teaspoon of cornstarch

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Chop and mash strawberries into large chunks in a medium bowl.  Mix in lemon juice, sugar and vanilla.

Place strawberry mixture in medium saucepan and heat over medium high heat.  Stir in cornstarch/water thoroughly and bring to a low boil, then reduce heat to maintain.

Stir occasionally.  At this point, the mixture will have a milky quality.  When sauce begins to thicken and become clear, keep on low boil for additional minute.

Remove from heat and stir in butter until fully incorporated.

Set aside and allow to cool completely before using.  Store in sealed container in fridge until ready to use.

Vanilla Meringue Buttercream

3 large egg whites

3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon evaporated cane sugar

2 sticks room temperature unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium heat proof bowl, whisk together egg whites and sugar and place over pan filled with water (making sure bowl does not touch the water).  While continuing to whisk, heat egg mixture over simmering water until sugar is completely dissolved.  I did not have a candy thermometer but mixture was warm to touch and no grittiness felt between finger when finger were dipped in mixture.  Remove from heat.

Beat egg mixture on high speed until it holds a stiff peak.  With my hand mixer, it never really formed a stiff peak – more like a pliable hill.  After 20 minutes and holding the mixer, I moved on to the next step.

On a medium speed, begin adding butter a little at a time, fully incorporating before adding more butter.  Frosting began to come together almost immediately.  When all the butter has been added, beat in vanilla and continue beating until smooth, light and fluffy.  Use immediately or store in airtight container in fridge.  Will keep about 3 days.

filling the cupcake

ready to frost

To assemble cupcakes

Using a small knife, carefully cut a hole in the top of each cupcake, removing tops and set aside.  Take the handle part of the spoon, gently scoop out some of the cake to accomodate the filling.  Fill each cupcake with filling, using a spoon and replace tops.  Frost with buttercream or pipe it with a large size tip.  Eat or refrigerate until ready to serve.

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