Sweet Heart Strawberry Cupcakes

 Happy Valentine's Day!

This year Valentine's Day was a complete success; I got to share this special day with friends and family and learn a few new techniques to improve my baking.  I had the pleasure of coming up with this cupcake for my daughters Valentines Class Party.  I had so much fun, so let me share how I made these. 

Sweet Heart Strawberry Cup Cake

Let me introduce you to my new Sweet Heart Strawberry Cupcake.  This little guy is a soft, sweet, moist cupcake filled with bites of strawberry goodness.  I am even willing to say it is the best cupcake I have ever made.  I am sure you are wondering what makes this cupcake so different from any other cupcake.  The secret ingredient is buttermilk.   Yes, I said buttermilk.  I found a wonderful recipe in a book called "Hello, Cupcake!" written by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson.                                                                         .
I am including it here.

Perfect Cake-Mix Cupcakes

1 box (18.25 ounces) cake mix (French vanilla, devil's food or yellow) (I used vanilla)
1 Cup buttermilk (in place of the water called for on the box)
Vegetable oil (the amount on the box)
4 large eggs (in place of the number called for on the box)

Mix all the ingredients in a mixer.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, bake for 15 to 20 minutes, remove to a cooling rack and cool completely before icing them.  Makes 24 cup cakes.

My icing is a typical Wilton Buttercream icing. (With a twist)

Strawberry Buttercream Icing

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 teaspoon Clear Vanilla Extract
2 teaspoons Imitation Strawberry extract (I really like the flavor of Watkins)
2 drops of red food coloring
4 Cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approx. 1 lb.)
2 Tablespoons milk

Make sure the shortening and butter are softened, place in mixer and beat until smooth.  If there are still lumps let the mix sit for about five minutes and beat again. Add one cup at a time of the sifted confectioners' sugar as follows mixing in between each, add vanilla after the first cup of sugar has been added, Mix, add second cup of sugar and then two teaspoons of strawberry extract, Mix, add third cup of sugar and then a Tablespoon of milk, Mix, add fourth cup of sugar and another Tablespoon of milk, Mix.  Lastly add two drops of red food coloring. (if this does not give you your desired color you can add more)

Hint:  Do your best to not over beat the icing, doing so whips too much air into the icing and it will not pipe out smoothly.


I used a 12" disposable piping bag and a Wilton #21 decorating tip.  If you do not have piping bag you can always us a large plastic storage bag, freezer bags work best because they are denser.


Lastly as soon as I piped the icing on the cake I rolled the edges onto a dish of Wilton Red Sugar Sprinkles and then topped immediately with these sweet Heart Shaped Sugar Sprinkles.  (You do not want to wait until you have all the cupcakes iced to put the toppings on.  The icing will begin to set and the toppings will not adhere as well.  I suggest not piping more than two before you add the toppings.)



So I mentioned in my previous post how much I was intrigued by the multicolored cupcakes I found on www.pinterest.com .  So I had to give it a shot. 

Using the batter from the recipe above I took about half the batter put it into a large freezer Ziploc bag, snipped off one of the corners and piped it into the cup cake cups. I piped the batter around the cup staying close to the edges as much as possible.  I then put what was left of the batter in the bag back into the mixer and added a couple drops of red food coloring.  I got another bag and filled it with the batter and filling in the area that was left and mostly in the center I piped my second color.  i took the batter that was left and put it back in the mixer and added a couple more drops of food coloring to get a darker shade of pink.  I then put into another Ziploc bag, snipped the end off and put the tip on the bottom of the cup in the center and gave it a good squeeze while pulling up.  As you can see there are three distinct colors of batter than you can see in the above picture.  I then placed them into the oven to bake.

However....

Inside of Cup Cake

This is my end result.  Not too bad for a first attempt, but I know I can do better.  There are two things I notice here right off.  I have holes in the middle of my cake and I can only see two true colors.  I think my first two shades were too close to the same color and that is why I cannot see three colors.  To get rid of the air pockets inside the cake it is important and I forgot to do this but to slightly drop the pan a few times on the counter to raise the air that is caught in the cake.  You must do this carefully but it will keep the inside of the cakes from drying out from the trapped air that is caught in there and it makes for a nicer dense moist cake.


Here is my final result.

Final Result

What do you think?

I am completely in love with these sweet wonderful bites of yummy goodness!  I will be using this cup cake recipe again and again because the cakes come out light and not heavy.  They are PERFECT! 

I would love to hear any comments you have about the cupcakes especially if you were lucky enough to get to try the ones I made or if you try the recipe yourself.  All feedback is good feedback because it will help me to become a better writer and a better baker.  Any and all questions are welcome as well.

Happy Baking!