The Cooker Boy wants Strawberry Cupcakes

The cooker boy's Strawberry Cupcakes

Ben ( aka The Cooker Boy) has been hounding me to make cupcakes lately, so I gave in last night. I asked him what kind of cupcakes he wanted, and the answer was Strawberry with pink icing, because pink is a color for boys and girls. Can't argue that, there are grown men wearing pink, and I don't want to give the kid a complex.

I compromised, and tried a new yellow cake recipe and improvised my way to Strawberry Buttercream. We were both happy with this decision! I wasn't so sure if adding strawberries to the buttercream would work well or not, but the result was a nice Pink frosting (yay Ben) with nice bits of strawberry and an amazing flavor! The cake was lacking something, possibly from the ommission of butter flavoring and the fact that i substituted cream for the milk. Like i said, I improvise. A lot. With what I have on hand. Overall, I was pleased with how the cupcakes turned out...Here you go!



Moist Yellow Cake  from Bakerella

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

3 cups sifted self rising flour

1 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon butter flavoring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 3 8-inch cake pans, or use cupcake tins if desired.

Using a mixer, cream butter until fluffy. Add sugar, and continue to cream for about 7 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each egg. Add flour and milk to creamed mixture, starting and ending with flour. Add vanilla and butter flavoring until just mixed.

Divide batter between pans, or cupcake tins. For the 8 in cakes, bake 25-30 minutes. For my cupcakes, 18 minutes worked well.  Cool in pan 5-10 minutes.

Remove cakes from pans, and immediately wrap in plastic wrap to seal in moisture. Cool completely on wire racks. ( Didn't do this...wrapping 30 cupcakes seemed like a pain..but next time will try with cakes, I'm interested to see how this turns out)

Strawberry Buttercream Frosting  adapted from  Savory Sweet Life

1 cup butter ( 2 sticks), softened

3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons milk or heavy cream

handful of strawberries, washed, hulled and pureed

Beat butter with mixer until creamy. Add powdered sugar a little at a time to prevent the massive white cloud of sugar in your kitchen. Once the sugar and butter are mixed and creamy, add

 salt, vanilla and milk/cream until just mixed. If the frosting isn't at your desired consistency, add more sugar to thicken or more milk/cream to thin. When you've got your desired consistency, fold in strawberries gently.

Here's the Cooker Boy enjoying his treat, after licking all the frosting off the cupcake...

Enjoy!! Let me know what you think..

The first post...here we go!

So at work yesterday, one of the nurses asks "Do you like to cook? Because when you're not busy, you're always looking at food..". It's true. On the rare occasion I'm not busy at work, I love reading food blogs! I've gotten some great ideas, amazing recipes, and lots of inspiration from other food bloggers. So I've decided to start my own blog! I cook to blow off steam, when I'm bored, when I'm getting together with friends, or when my son wants to make something. I love trying out new recipes, putting my own little spin on them and seeing what happens!

So the first recipe.. is...


Strawberry Cupcakes with Lime Buttercream
adapted from Strawberry-Lime Stuffed Cupcakes at Foodnetwork.com

This is a small recipe, it will make either 6 large or 10 regular size cupcakes.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line the muffin tin with cupcake liners.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl.

In another medium bowl, beat the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer until light and foamy, about 2 minutes. While beating, gradually pour in the butter and then the vanilla.

While mixing slowly, add half the dry ingredients, then add all the milk, and follow with the rest of the dry ingredients. Take care not to over mix the batter. Divide the batter evenly in the prepared tins.

Bake until a tester inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack in the tin for 10 minutes, then remove. Cool on the rack completely.

My variation came in here. I didn't nestle a strawberry inside the cupcake like the original recipe calls for, and I made my icing a buttercream....because I love buttercream!

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 cups confectioners sugar
juice of 2 limes
Green food coloring if desired

Mix butter and sugar until creamy, add lime juice and mix until blended. Add food coloring if desired.

I sliced the strawberries and put them on top of the cupcakes, along with some lime zest and green sanding sugar.

Enjoy! Would love to hear what you think!