Sweet Treats Saturday: Pink Lady Cupcakes

It's that time of year again... the time when I start craving strawberry cake.  

Every year I seem to get this strawberry craving - maybe because I don't see strawberry desserts all that often?  I mean when you go out to eat, it's usually chocolate cake or creme brûlée or something along those lines.  But strawberries? Nope.  So time to bust out the mixer and make my own!

I think I actually stumbled across this recipe on Pinterest.  I was inspired by the idea of a pink cake with a mint colored frosting.  Unfortunately I was a little light on the colors - I could have done a bit more of both the pink in the cake and green in the frosting, but I still like how they turned out visually.  Taste?  Amazing!  I brought these in to work and dance class and both audiences were gushing over them!  The strawberry taste is subtle but combined with the cream cheese - sooo good!

Pink Lady Cupcakes

Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen
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Ingredients for the cake:
4 1/2 cups cake flour
3 cups sugar
5 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups pureed frozen strawberries (I thawed them at room temperature then pureed them)
8 egg whites
2/3 cup milk
1 to 2 drops red food dye, if using (to make the pink color pop more)

Ingredients for the cream cheese frosting:
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks; 6 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
3 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions for the cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 3 cupcake pans (the recipe will make 3 dozen total).

2. Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixer bowl. With the electric mixer on low speed, blend for 30 seconds. Add the butter and strawberry puree and mix to blend the ingredients. Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes; the batter will resemble strawberry ice cream at this point. (Deb note: I must warn you not to try the batter at this point. Not even a smear of it. How unbearably good it is will shock you, and lead to more dipping. Only you can stop this from coming to pass.)

3. In another large bowl, whisk together the egg whites, milk and red food dye, if using, to blend. Add the whites to the batter in two or three additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl well and mixing only to incorporate after each addition. Divide the batter among the three prepared pans.

4. Bake the cakes for 30 to 34 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow the layers to cool in the pans for 10 to 15 minutes. Invert and turn out onto wire racks and peel off the paper liners. Let stand until completely cooled before assembling the cake, at least an hour.

Directions for the cream cheese frosting:
1. In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. 

2. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners’ sugar until smooth.

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