Strawberry Cupcake:
2/3 c. frozen strawberries, thawed
1 1/2 c. flour, sifted
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. coarse salt
1/4 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 c. sugar
1 egg
2 egg whites
1. Place strawberries in a food processor and puree, you should end up with about 1/3 cup strawberry puree. I actually used fresh strawberries, and used 2/3 cup strawberry puree. Stir in milk and vanilla to strawberry puree, set aside.
2. In a new bowl whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. The original recipe did not call for baking soda, but after reading the reviews I decided to use it, and the cupcakes came out nice and fluffy.
3. In a third bowl cream room temperature butter until light and fluffy with an electric mixer. Slowly add sugar and beat until fluffy.
4.Add eggs and whites one at a time, mix until just blended.
5. Add about half the flour mixture into the butter and mix until just blended. Next add all the strawberry puree mixture and mix until just blended. Add the last bit of flour and mix until just blended. The mixture was very airy and fluffy, if you over mix the batter will become dense, and the cupcakes will not rise. This is the cause of dense cupcakes.
6. Preheat oven to 350. Spoon batter into muffin tins, I used a 1/5 cup and it worked perfectly. This should have made 12 cupcakes, but due to the extra puree I made 14 cupcakes instead. Bake for 22 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from pan to cool. Once cool frost!
Nutella Frosting:
4 oz. Cream cheese, room temp
1/4 c. Nutella
2-3 c. Powdered sugar
1. Stir together nutella and soft cream cheese. Next mix them with an electric mixer just to incorporate some air into the mix.
2. Slowly add powdered sugar. I did not measure how much I used, because I ran out. I just started pouring some sugar into the mix and mixing then adding more until I got a consistency I liked.
3. Frost cooled cupcakes, either by piping or spreading. You will use more by piping the frosting, and you also will need to make it stiffer.
I love my roomies! Notice Nikkie and Morgan in the corners watching the cupcakes with anticipation!
These cupcakes came out great. Now I understand why commercial bakeries add food coloring, the strawberry turned brown while baking. It tasted great, but the color was a little off putting. Although, these were the fastest eaten batch of cupcakes so I guess the color wasn't that off putting! Happy Baking!
