Sprinkles Cupcakes' Strawberry Cupcakes

What a crazy morning!! My MOMS Club has a monthly birthday brunch party to celebrate the mommies having birthdays that month. My friend Laura coordinates it and asked if I'd host May's because two of my friends, Michelle and Cindy were both having birthdays. So I said sure. I forget how much I hate hosting events at my house until the morning of them. Really I just hate the running around getting my house ready for company. But it kind of pays off because now I have time to update my blog since my house is already clean. So I guess I can't complain too much.

Anyway, Laura asked if I could make some cupcakes for the party. The birthday girls--there was another one, too, Carissa who owns our fabulous local ice cream shop--wanted Funfetti and strawberry. I offered to make strawberry. I'm not big on mixes and ready made frosting because of all the gross stuff that can be in them (have you ever read the ingredients on a cake mix or tub of frosting?), so I did some searching for a recipe I could make. My Googling lead me to Oprah's website and a recipe for Sprinkles Cupcakes' Strawberry Cupcakes. I've heard of Sprinkles but never actually consumed one of their cupcakes, but since I know it's a popular place I figured this would be a good recipe to try.

Sprinkles Cupcakes' Strawberry Cupcakes
Source: Oprah.com

2/3 cup fresh or frozen whole strawberries (thawed if frozen)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. coarse salt
1/4 cup whole milk, room temperature
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
2 large egg whites, room temperature

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners; set aside.

Place strawberries in a small food processor; process until pureed. You should have about 1/3 cup of puree. Add a few more strawberries if necessary, or save any extra puree for frosting; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In a small bowl, mix together milk, vanilla and strawberry puree; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until well combined and fluffy. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and slowly add egg and egg whites until just blended.

With the mixer on low, slowly add half the flour mixture; mix until just blended. Add the milk mixture; mix until just blended. Slowly add remaining flour mixture, scraping down sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary, until just blended.

Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Transfer muffin tin to oven and bake until tops are just dry to the touch, 22 to 25 minutes. Transfer muffin tin to a wire rack and let cupcakes cool completely in tin before icing.

Sprinkles Cupcakes' Strawberry Frosting
Source: Oprah.com

1/2 cup frozen whole strawberries, thawed
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, firm and slightly cold
Pinch coarse salt
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Place strawberries in the bowl of a small food processor; process until pureed. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and salt on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce mixer speed and slowly add confectioners' sugar; beat until well combined. Add vanilla and 3 tablespoons strawberry puree (save any remaining strawberry puree for another use); mix until just blended. Do not overmix, or frosting will incorporate too much air. Frosting consistency should be dense and creamy, like ice cream.

*****

I needed more than one dozen cupcakes, so I doubled the recipe for the cupcakes but I left the frosting recipe as is. I can only deduce that Sprinkles Cupcakes must have a TON of frosting because I was able to frost 22 cupcakes (two little scoundrels each took a cupcake yesterday while I was upstairs getting dressed, so I had less than my original 24) with the single batch and had some left over. Even if I'd frosted 24 cupcakes I think I'd still have some left.

These were pretty freakin' fantastic. The husband had one last night after they were frosted and said it may be the best cupcake he'd ever eaten. The frosting was AMAZING--and I loved that it tasted like real strawberries, not strawberry flavoring and Red #40. The cupcakes themselves had a mild strawberry flavor, but the frosting really made it pop. The cupcakes were really dense which was so good. The only change I made was to use almond milk instead of whole milk. We don't drink whole milk, and I wasn't about to buy a container of it for just this recipe. I didn't think skim milk would be a good substitution, but I did have almond milk in the fridge that I thought would work.

Even as much as I don't like to bake, these were pretty easy to make. The end product is definitely worth making again!!

GG's Carrot Cake

Isn't it funny how once you have kids you start referring to people how your kids do? I rarely refer to my mom as mom anymore...it's usually Gaga. My grandmas have become GG and Granny. I guess it's just easier and avoids confusion as to whom you are discussing or trying to talk to. My mom? Your mom? Me? My grandma? My mom as grandma? Yeah, it's a lot simpler using whatever term my kids use.

My grandma, whom my kids call GG, makes a fantastic carrot cake. It's always been my dad's favorite and always what he chooses for his birthday. At some point the boy became obsessed with carrot cake. I'm not sure how or why as I don't think it's a favorite of most four year olds, but who knows. My mom's birthday was earlier this month, and the boy wanted to make her a carrot cake. I said why didn't we make carrot cake cupcakes instead. He went for it, which was good because I knew I could easily sit and eat a plethora of pieces of GG's carrot cake. Several years ago I took my scanner over to my grandparents' house for a day so I could scan my grandma's recipes. Not to be morbid, but I figured when she passes away there would be an annoying fight over who got her recipe cards, plus this way I could have copies of them in her handwriting. This was one that I scanned.

GG's Carrot Cake

2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
2 cups grated carrots
1 can (8-1/4 oz) crushed pineapple
1 cup shredded coconut
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup chopped nuts
2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
1-1/4 cup vegetable oil

Combine all ingredients. Do not mix a whole lot. Bake at 350 for 45 to 50 minutes or until cake is done. Makes 3 8" layers or large flat pan.

Frosting

1 cup margarine or butter
1 8 ounce package cream cheese
1 package powdered sugar (I assumed 1 pound)
1 cup nuts
2 tsp vanilla

Cream margarine and cream cheese together. Add sugar, vanilla, and nuts. Spread on cake when cool.

*****

I was really good and stuck to my diet and only had one cupcake. Well, one at my mom's party. I had one the day before sans frosting to make sure they tasted okay. And I have to say...I'm not entirely sure how a carrot muffin is all that different from a carrot cake cupcake. This is definitely one of my most favorite cakes ever. I heart my grandma so much!!

The boy helped me put this all together and was really pleased with himself for helping make Gaga's (see...there I go again!) birthday cupcakes. They were a huge hit. Oh, and I used chopped walnuts as my nut of choice for this...mostly because it's what my mom said my grandma uses when she makes it (GG was at lunch when I needed to know what kind of nut to get). I wasn't sure how long to bake them, so I did some Googling and found 15 to 20 minutes would be the ideal cupcake baking time. Changing this into cupcakes I got 24 cupcakes and an 8x8 square dish single layer cake out of it. I was pretty pleased with my creativity and cut the square cake into fourths and made a little layer cake out of it for my dad (I mean Baba since that's what my kiddos call him).

And I should probably admit that I'm completely frosting inept. I cannot frost a cake to save my life. Well, maybe if I really needed to save my life I could do a decent job frosting one, but normally they look pretty horrible. Or like my almost two year old did the job for me. Sadly I'm not exaggerating that much. Maybe that's a subconscious reason why I chose cupcakes instead of a regular layer cake...



I'm fairly certain my baby is going to be a ninja. Or a football player...but a very stealthy one. Somehow he managed to sneak three cupcakes down from the counter, take them to the table, sit down, and start eating them without the husband or me noticing. I didn't know whether to laugh or be mad when I saw him. He was very methodical about it all, too. He lined them up, then he'd take a bite from one and put it down, move to the next and take a bite and put it down, move to the next and take a bite and put it down, then start the cycle over again. What a goof!!

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

I've been neglecting my blog over the holiday weekend. I told the husband this morning that today I want to get my blogs updated and work on cleaning our office so we can start looking for a treadmill. We've been having a fun, relaxing weekend. I'm sad today is the last day of it! I love when the husband is home from work and we get to have family time. Right now he and the boy are out in a little inflatable pool my mom bought for my kids. The boy LOVES it. First thing this morning he asked, "Can I go swimming?" :)

I haven't had to do much cooking this weekend, although I've done a lot of stuff for fun. Friday night the husband and I grilled burgers after the kids were in bed. They were tasty...I added a packet of ranch dressing mix, some barbecue sauce, and some shredded cheddar cheese to the ground beef. YUM! Saturday night we went to my mom's for dinner to celebrate the baby's half birthday. I know, can you believe he's six months old already?! Me neither. For the boy's six month birthday I made a half cake--two round cakes each cut in half and then layered and frosted. I was excited to do another one because, to be brutally honest, I thought it was a really clever idea the first time around. :) I used a yellow cake mix but used applesauce instead of the oil and Egg Beaters instead of the eggs to make it slightly healthier. This was the same frosting recipe I used for the boy's cake, and I had loved it, so I figured I might as well stick with it.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1 8-ounce block cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup baking cocoa powder
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

In bowl of stand mixer (or with an electric mixer), cream butter and cream cheese together. Add in remaining ingredients until combined.

*****

This is some of the best chocolate frosting I have EVER had. The recipe actually says you can use vanilla or almond extract, but I had crossed out the almond extract, so I imagine that must not have been as good. I'm embarrased to admit how much of the frosting I ate straight out of the bowl, but since that's a pretty vague statement, I'll just leave it at that.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Today is my friend Laura's birthday. Happy Birthday Laura!! Our friend Kelly hosted a lunch pizza party at her house to celebrate. It was so fun--good friends, pizza and watermelon and veggies and breadsticks for lunch. It ended on a low note with the boy having an accident in his underwear (thanks again, Kelly!! You're a SAINT!), but other than that it was quite enjoyable. Anyway, I had signed up to take cupcakes. But when I looked at the Evite yesterday, there were 34 people including kids, so I figured my one box of cake mix wouldn't cover everyone, so I opted for a 9x13 cake instead. I don't like store bought frosting (have you ever looked at the ingredient list on those?! Yuck!!), so I looked up recipes to make my own. I have a chocolate cream cheese frosting that I LOVE, but I didn't have enough powdered sugar for it. Turns out I didn't have enough powdered sugar for any of the frosting recipes I found. So I looked on RecipeZaar.com for one that I could use. I had two cups of powdered sugar, and everything I was finding called for three or more. Finally I found one that got good reviews and used just the amount of sugar I had on hand. It was meant to be.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Recipe #44126
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1/3 cup milk
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla

Place butter in a bowl and beat until creamy. Add sugar and cocoa, mixing well. Stir in milk in portions, stirring each time. Add vanilla. Spread on cooled cake or other items needing frosting.

*****

This. Was. Yummy. Everyone at the party really liked it. It was super easy to mix together and all the ingredients are things I normally have on hand. The original recipe on the website was for 3-3/4 cups frosting, but you can change the amount you need and it automatically recalculates everything for you. How cool is that?! So I played around with amounts until I got one that matched how much powdered sugar I had.

Peanut Butter Frosting

I know I'm a few days behind in posting and need to go back and fill y'all in on what I've made, but really all I can think about right now is this amazing frosting I just made. The husband and I were sitting around watching a movie this afternoon while the boy napped, and I got a hankering for some brownies. With ice cream and hot fudge sauce. I didn't have a brownie mix in the pantry and didn't feel like whipping them up from scratch (since we were watching a movie and all), but I did have a triple chocolate fudge cake mix (or something ridiculous like that). So I mixed it up...because I'm pregnant and I can make a triple chocolate fudge cake whenever I want!

I thought peanut butter frosting sounded awfully good with it, so I looked in my Cake Mix Doctor cookbook for a frosting recipe. Excellent...I had everything for it! I had never made peanut butter frosting before, but I figured it was worth a try. And if it sucked, I'd just eat plain chocolate cake.

Peanut Butter Frosting
1 cup creamy peanut butter
8 Tbsp (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
3-4 Tbsp milk
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Place peanut butter and butter in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, 30 seconds. Stop the machine. Add the sugar, 3 Tbsp milk, and vanilla. Blend with mixer on low until the sugar is well combined. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the frosting lightens and is fluffy. Blend in up to 1 Tbsp milk if the frosting seems too stiff. Use at once to frost cake of choice.

*****

Lordy mama, this stuff is heaven on a spatula! I was tempted to skip frosting the cake and eat the whole bowl, but I think that might be a bit too much. Supposedly the recipe was enough to frost a 9x13 cake, but I had quite a bit extra...and I'm a generous froster! So the boy and I have been having bites of it because it's just that darn good.

Now I'm trying to decide if it's overkill to chop up some Reese' Peanut Butter Cups (because I'm pregnant and have them sitting in my pantry) to sprinkle on top of the cake...