Tasty Tuesday

I have always enjoyed baking. Over the last several years (mostly due to living alone when the Mister was traveling), I have become much better at cooking as well, and enjoy it almost as much as I do baking. I thought that this would be a fun new feature, every Tuesday, where I could share fun new recipes, either for dinner or dessert (I would expect more desserts, LOL).

With Valentines Day a short week away, I wanted to share something fun and pink. Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry buttercream frosting. Yum!

These are all the ingredients for the batter. Flour, buttermilk, frozen sliced strawberries, butter, eggs, salt, baking powder, vanilla, sugar, and baking soda. Wait, there should be baking soda pictured as well. Not sure where it ran off to, but trust me, you'll need it.

You will want to take 4 egg whites and place them in a bowl and let them sit out for 30 minutes, so they are at room temperature. You can also go ahead and preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. 

In the mean time, you will want to mix 2 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, and a half teaspoon of salt.

Next, in a large mixing bowl, you will want to beat 1/2 cup of butter until creamy. You will then want to mix in 1 3/4 cups of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

You will want to add in the egg whites, one at a time (I just guessed at what seemed like 1/4 at a time) and beat until each one is thoroughly mixed in. After all the egg whites have been added in, you will want to add in the flour mixture and 1 1/3 cups buttermilk, alternating each time and mixing slowly after each addition. 

Once you are done adding in all the flour mixture and buttermilk, you will them want to add in 10 oz of frozen sliced strawberries, thawed, liquid and all. It will make your batter a lovely shade of pink.

The next part is just adding the batter to the cupcake pans. You'll want to pop them in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until they seem done. I did two pans at once, so that may be why it took so long. Yours might not. That's the mystery of baking and ovens.

Above is all the ingredients you will need for the delish strawberry buttercream frosting! Milk, powdered sugar, strawberry jam, vanilla, and butter.

In a large mixing bowl, you will want to beat 3/4 cups of butter until creamy. You will then want to add in 1/3 cup of strawberry jam. I used one that had a low sugar amount, so it didn't add too much additional sweetness to the frosting.

You will then want to gradually add in 2 cups of powdered sugar. You will then want to add in 1/3 cup of milk and 2 teaspoons of vanilla. Once those are mixed in, you will then want to gradually mix in the remaining 6 cups of powdered sugar. You can add in additional milk as necessary.

Once all the powdered sugar has been added and it has reached a consistency that you like, you are ready to ice the cupcakes. Speaking of which, they should be ready to come out of the oven.

They don't look pink like the batter did, but the wonderful strawberries that we added are in there. Oh yes, they are. Also, I doubled up on the liners. I liked the pretty ones for Valentines day, but knew they wouldn't look so pretty after baking, so I did plain white ones and then the pretty valentine ones on the outside.

I am not so good at frosting things, so I just did a decorating bag and large round decorating tip to make frosting them easier.

Try not to eat them all at once...I will say that there is not nearly as many left as there probably should be, but really, don't hold it against me.

I mean, just look at them, how can we just leave them sitting there looking all pretty? That isn't want they are made for!

Do you have any favorite (or new, like this one was to me) recipes that you will be making for Valentines day?


Peace out *g*