Strawberry Birthday Cupcakes

Every Wednesday night is girl's night out! We have been going out to a local bar to line dance on Wednesday nights for...geez...it's been 9 years now!! My friend's birthday is this Sunday so of course we had to celebrate last night!! What else was I to do but make cupcakes!!! She chose strawberry and her favorite color is purple. I made strawberry cupcakes and a purple cream cheese icing. I also made little pink and purple vanilla candies to go on top! They were absolutely delicious and a big hit with my fellow cowboys and cowgirls!

Here are the recipes I used!

Strawberry Cupcakes

1/2 cup of unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup of granulated sugar

3 egg whites

2 teaspoons of strawberry extract

1 cup of pureed fresh strawberries

1/4 cup of sour cream

1 1/2 cups of cake flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1/8 teaspoon of iodized salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large mixing bowl beat sugar and butter on medium until fluffy. Add the egg whites one at a time beating well after each one.

3. Stir in the strawberry extract, pureed strawberries and sour cream.

4. In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

5. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture beating until combined.

6. Pour batter evenly into lined cupcake pan.

7. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

8. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes then let cupcakes cool on a wire rack completely before frosting.

Purple Cream Cheese Frosting

1/4 cup of butter at room temperature

1 8oz. package of cream cheese still cold, straight from the fridge

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, sifted

A couple drops of purple food coloring (I used the Neon food coloring)

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium until smooth.

2. Add vanilla extract and beat until combined.

3. Add food coloring until desired color is reached.

4. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until smooth. (Do not overbeat or your frosting will not stand up well. I think I beat mine too much and it fell flat a little bit once I piped it onto the cupcakes.)

Pink and Purple Vanilla Candies

Candy mold (I used flowers, birds and butterflies but you can use anything you like!)

Pink vanilla wafers

Purple vanilla wafers

1. Melt the candies in microwave safe bowls until they are smooth and completely melted.

2. If you want your candies to have both colors, paint the first color into the mold in certain spots. Let them dry completely before adding the next color.

3. Pour a small amount of melted candy into the molds and tap the mold slightly on a flat surface until the candy has sunk into all crevices and is smooth on the top.

4. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes.

5. The candys will slide right out and you are ready to decorate! Or eat them...whichever. :)

                                     

P.S. I made the marbled one by pouring half of each color in the mold and then swirling it around with the end of my small paintbrush.

I also colored the little nonpareils myself. I bought the little white ones, put some in a ziploc bag, added a few drops of pink food coloring and shook them around until they were all colored. Then I added some more whites and shook them around to create the multi colored effect. After that, I added some pink pearl dust and shook them around some more. I loooove pearl dust. It gives whatever you use it on such a pretty shine.

And here they are all ready to go!!

                        

So the next day I headed to Target to get her a birthday card. Look at this card I found!! Perfect huh?

But wait! It gets better!! So this card came with a boring white envelope. I don't know about ya'll, but everytime I buy a card I never settle for the envelope it comes with. I look around at all the other envelopes in the store and find a prettier one that fits it. So in a completely different section I found THIS envelope. I get way too excited about little things...I know.

If you love strawberries, you will LOVE these cupcakes. They are easy to make and absolutely scrumptious. Try 'em out and let me know what you think!!