Yep, I’m back with a second post today. It’s hard enough for me to get up one post a day, never mind two, but Tuesdays with Dorie and the Martha Stewart’s Cupcake Club both fell on the same day this month and I didn’t want to skip either so let’s get to it! This month’s MSC recipe was selected by Sherry of Sherry Starts Cooking: strawberry cupcakes. The strawberries are gorgeous right now so it was a perfect seasonal selection. Plus, my mom has a serious love for strawberry cupcakes so I knew exactly who I’d share them with!
As I tried to figure out how to scale this recipe I was talking to Kayte about my biggest problem with Martha’s book – the yields for the recipes are so darn high. This recipe makes 34 cupcakes and while there are certainly occasions where you might want 34 cupcakes, I think it’s the exception rather than the rule. In any case, I wound up deciding to make 1/3 of the recipe (motivated mainly by my desire to only dirty one cupcake tin). I was working with a limited pantry (I wasn’t at home) when I made these cupcakes and didn’t have cake flour on hand. I remembered having seen a trick for making it using cornstarch and all-purpose flour so that’s just what I did. Basically you substitute 2 tablespoons of cornstarch for 2 tablespoons of flour per cup of flour you’re using, then sift them like crazy to make sure the cornstarch is mixed in really well.
I wound up with 11 cupcakes and topped them with freshly whipped cream instead of the strawberry meringue buttercream suggested. I didn’t notice it when I was taking the photos of the cupcakes, but as I edited them, it struck me that the whipped cream looks like a cone of soft serve vanilla ice cream on my cupcakes!
I liked the cupcakes – the strawberries kept them moist and I really didn’t even think they needed frosting. That said, they weren’t a favorite so probably not a repeat here – as much as I love strawberries, something about strawberries in cupcakes just doesn’t work for me. My mom enjoyed them though, and since she’s the resident expert on strawberry cupcakes, take my opinion with a grain of salt. Lots of thanks to Sherry for her selection this month! We don’t post the recipes in this group, but I did a little scouring on Martha’s website to dig it up for you – find it here – or on pages 146-147 of Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes.
Lemon Bars
Glazed Grapefruit Cake
Orange Sherbet
Meyer Lemon Pound Cake
Thanks for your honest review. never found a strawberry cupcake I love yet. Sorry it did not work out. I am posting Ina’s triple berry muffins on Friday and they are definitely thumbs up…well when a recipe says two sticks of butter it can’t get much better:-)
Joyce
LOVE the swirled whipped cream soft serve look!
Oh, they turned out so cute with their little tops! I love those scalloped edges on the wrappers, too. We loved these, they were a big hit. You hit the nail on the head with the comment about the measurements being hard to reduce…my feelings exactly. It makes it sort of an unfriendly book for that reason. Or maybe we just need to practice our math and this is how we are meant to do it. Naw.
Great looking cupcakes. Too bad you didn’t like the cupcakes, I thought they were great although they were just like muffins. Hopefully you’ll have more luck next month.
Sorry you didn’t like them much. I LOVED them — maybe it was the strawberry frosting instead of the whipped cream? Yours do look pretty and exactly liked soft serve. So cute!
They turned out looking very pretty, even if they weren’t a favorite.
Btw, according to a bunch of tests done by Rose Levy Beranbaum (www.realbaking.com), you get better results if you sub AP flour + 15% potato starch. I can send you the exact link if you’re interested. But in your case, being that you weren’t in your own home, you might not have had easy access to potato starch either.
These were good cuppys. fresh strawberries and I like the idea of whipped cream. Yours are beautiful.
Glad your Mom enjoyed these! Mine didn’t turn out very well, and they lacked a “wow” factor for me, too.
Wonderful toppings! You’re right – this made MEGA muffins… I made half and had tons ‘o batter left. But glad you enjoyed the muffin/cupcake? – I fell in love with strawberry cupcakes after this! I’m sure your mom will enjoy them too!
Love the toppings! I love how high and swirly your frosting looks.
Beautiful cupcake!! A fabulous treat!
My mom is also a HUGE fan of strawberries in any form. Thanks for baking with me!
We had the two you left behind for us on Saturday morning and we thought they were delicious for a breakfast treat. Moist and sweet! Thanks Tracey!
Beautiful cupcakes! Love the soft-serve look. I didn’t get around to making these this month because I have had them before and liked them, but wasn’t in loooove with them. I usually cut down the recipe sizes in this book too.
Wow, 34 cupcakes is a lot! I would definitely scale down that recipe. I’d say strawberries would be better in a muffin instead of a cupcake…? Your photos have great texture!
These look SO delicious!!! YUM!
They look beautiful!
They totally look like soft serve cones. But they also look delicious!
These look pretty! I know what you mean about strawberries in cupcakes, though. I actually prefer cupcakes made with strawberry puree to add flavor instead of chunks of strawberry. Either way, they look great!
You cupcakes look very tasty. I enjoy baking myself and sometimes when what I was aiming to accomplish doesn’t come out the way it suppose to, I would normally try it another day. I like the ideal of the Strawberry Cupcake and I think you should try it again…second time around is always the best…I will definitely try this recipe myself.
Ohh, cupcakes! One of my favorite treats. I like yours with strawberry. It sounds super yummy!
Supercute cupcake wrappers!! I’m not able to find these here!
cute cupakes! like the frosting.
Thanks for your honest opinion I made these recently and was not impressed so was curious to read your post. Regarding your cake flour dilemma -, what I use and can’t remember where I got this from, said to sift the required amount of regular flour and then remove 2tablespoons for every cup. I’ve used this for all my recipes and get the same result when I use cake flour.
I LOVE how these look, even if they didn’t taste so good!!