Strawberry Cupcakes ala Sprinkles

Wow! It's been, like, FOREVER since I posted my last piece to this blog. I blame the fall academic calendar, the changing temperatures, my lack of sleep ... and any number of other excuses to get me off the hook.

But, I am back and ready to dish (no pun intended) on two new concoctions that I have recently tried. First up: Strawberry Cupcakes.

My attempt to make these little gems was inspired by two factors:

1) several months ago, I had a bunch of fresh strawberries in my refrigerator. My kids, David and Elizabeth, are really not huge fans of berries in any size, shape, or color. I say this is a huge pity, because they don't know what they are missing.

2) There is a wonderful little cupcake store in Glendora called The Cake Mamas, and they make an incredibly yummy strawberry shortcake cupcake, with a fluffy cupcake on the bottom, strawberry-infused whipped cream on top, and a fresh berry on top for decoration. It's sublime ... and it's also seasonal.

So, I set about to recreate a delicious, strawberry-inspired cupcake. Doing a search on Google for a "strawberry cupcake" recipe, I happened upon what claimed to be the "official" recipe for Strawberry Cupcakes from the world-renowned Sprinkles Cupcakes.

Candace Nelson can't be wrong here. I decided to give it a whirl, in both regular and gluten-free varieties.

Regular Recipe:

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

As usual, I stirred together the gluten batch first. Here is what the batter looked like:

Gluten batter: in the bowl

Gluten batter: in baking cups

 To me, the batter appeared to be a bit thin but manageable, and was easy to scoop into the paper cups.

They baked up nicely, too! Here's proof:

Gluten cupcakes: "poofed up" nicely in the baking pan

 

Gluten cupcakes: nice crumb and texture on the inside.

Next, it was on to the gluten-free batter. For this recipe, I substitute regular flour with a gluten-free flour mixture I've used before. This mixture combines the following:

 

3 cups brown rice flour (fine ground)
1 cup potato starch (not potato flour)
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1 1/4 teaspoons guar gum 

 

And, for the recipe, I used only 1 1/2 cups of this flour mixture.

 

All other ingredients listed above were included in this recipe.

 

Now, knowing that my gluten-free batters have, in past, tended to collapse soon after coming out of the oven, I experimented a bit by adding a bit more baking powder than that which was called for in the recipe, about 2 tsp.

 

Here is the batter in the bowl and in the baking cups. As I had seen before, the G-F batter took on a shiny look, suggesting that maybe the wet ingredients were incorporated differently into the G-F flour. I don't know; it's just a guess.

 

Gluten-free batter: in the bowl

Gluten-free batter: in baking cups

Looks a little shiny, doesn't it?

 

 The gluten-free cupcakes baked up quite nicely! I don't know if it's because I added a bit more baking powder, did not fill the baking cups as much as I would with a gluten batter (for fear of them puffing up too much and crusting all over the pan ... yuck). But, look at these little gems!

Gluten-free cupcakes: nicely and evenly browned

Gluten-free cupcakes: up close

The crumb and texture looked remarkably similar to the gluten version!

Next, it was time to have my intrepid taste-testers give me feedback. I provided both my next-door neighbors and a co-worker (and his kids) with samples.

Here is what my co-worker wrote in terms of feedback from his crew:

"Black cupcake wrapper: more crumbly, tastes more like shortcake, a little saltier

Red cupcake wrapper: smoother texture

Taste pretty much the same

Vote:

Black = 1

Red = 2"

 

And our next-door neighbors pretty much concurred. As for me? I loved them both!!

 

What I did not capture in photos was the delicious frosting I added to these cupcakes. I whipped fresh cream and incorporated finely chopped strawberries into it, and then fluted the cream on top of each. The strawberry whipped cream was a wonderful addition to both versions of this delightful cake.