White Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

A new family moved in across the street from us this week, so I decided to make cupcakes to bring as a welcome gift.  Originally I planned to bake a white cake mix and frost cupcakes with a jar of chocolate frosting.  While getting eggs from the fridge I spotted the carton of strawberries I’d bought earlier in the week that needed to be eaten asap.  Plans changed!  I thought about putting the berries in the cake mix, then thought about making cream cheese icing and placing a slice of strawberry on top, but then I remembered that I’d seen a strawberry frosting recipe on MarthaStewart.com a while back.

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It turned out to be the recipe from Sprinkles in L.A. I think there are something like seven locations across the nation now, but I haven’t been to any of them!  My sisters lived in Houston for a while and now live in Dallas, and have been to the Sprinkles there and liked the cupcakes.  My mom demands to go there and get a red velvet anytime she is visiting.  I will make it there someday!

I changed the recipe a little.  I used fresh berries, a little more powdered sugar, and a teeny touch of almond extract with the vanilla.  The white cake and strawberry frosting combination was light and fresh.  The fresh strawberries gave the frosting a lovely pink hue, not that fake pink you get from a bottle of food coloring or a jar of this icing….which I LOVED as a kid, by the way.

strawberryicing

This homemade frosting tastes much better than the strawberry frosting from a jar…and it’s too easy not to try in place of that fake strawberry.  However, there will always be a place in my heart for that jarred frosting on top of a boxed strawberry cake…

Sprinkles Strawberry Frosting

frosting

This makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes generously.

  • 1/2 cup whole fresh strawberries
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, firm and slightly cold
  • Pinch of coarse salt
  • 3 1/2 – 4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • scant 1/8 teaspoon almond extract (optional)

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.

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