Strawberry Dreams Cupcakes — Creative Lifestyle

Strawberries are our favourite type of berry, whether eaten on their own, dipped in chocolate or added to a recipe they add a depth and deliciousness to any recipe.

We don't like tooting our own horn but our Strawberry Dreams Cupcakes are delicious; they may take some work to get them just perfect but they're totally worth the time.

There are three components to our recipe: the batter, strawberry sauce, and the strawberry cream cheese frosting.

CUPCAKE BATTER

INGREDIENTS

2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup milk

1/2 cup melted butter

3 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

3 eggs

DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 350F.

Line muffin pan with liners.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mixing well until lump free and smooth; don't forget to scrap down the sides of the bowl.

Transfer batter to muffin tins and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown.

This recipe should make well over 12 regular sized cupcakes and well over 24 mini cupcakes.

STRAWBERRY SAUCE

INGREDIENTS

1 cup chopped strawberries (can use frozen if not in season)

1/2 cup sugar

1 to 2 tsp lemon juice

Cornstarch

DIRECTIONS

In a sauce pan add chopped, sugar and lemon juice and bring to a boil mashing the strawberries with a spoon to break them down further.

Stir in just enough cornstarch to thicken the sauce(it should stick to the back of a spoon or spatula ~ add more cornstarch need be; we added more simply because we're filling cupcakes and don't want it too loose or it will ooze out of the cakes)

Allow to cool and pass through a sieve to remove the seeds.

Any unused sauce will last up to a week in an airtight container.

STRAWBERRY CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

INGREDIENTS

4 cups sifted icing sugar

8 oz softened cream cheese

1 tsp pure vanilla extract (optional)

a couple of drops of red or pink gel food colouring (optional)

1 tbsp milk

1/4 to 1/2 cup strawberry sauce

DIRECTIONS

Combine cream cheese, vanilla, strawberry sauce and milk in a mixing bowl until smooth and slowly add a cup of icing sugar at a time until nice smooth and of spreading consistency or add more sugar until firmer for a piping consistency.

ASSEMBLY:

We filled a piping bag using Wilton's tip 280; excellent for filling cupcakes and donuts. Piercing the top of the cupcake gently (about 2/3 deep) we filled each cupcake with about 1 teaspoon of strawberry sauce while pulling up tip out of the cupcake while squeezing until it reached the top of the cupcake; add more if making larger cupcakes.

Hint: If you don't have a piping tip you can use a drinking straw to pierce and remove some cake from the center for easy filling or for larger cupcakes you can use an apple corer and put thickened sauce into a ziplock bag and cut off a corner.

We topped the cupcakes with our strawberry cream cheese frosting and added white candy sprinkles and candy hearts for Valentine's Day and voila a perfect strawberry cupcake was born.