My niece Amy turned three at the end of May, and of course as soon as Matthew’s school bus cake was done, I started thinking about which treats I wanted to make for her princess party. Every pretty princess needs some pretty pink princess cupcakes, and this recipe from Smitten Kitchen was perfect. I’m not usually one for fruit in my desserts, especially cupcakes, but these were so just so fluffy and had such a fresh strawberry flavour, that they won me over. Of course, we know by now that everything is better with cream cheese icing, dyed pink, natch. We won’t talk about how I bumped them on my car door on the way to the party and they all fell over 🙁

 

 

As for these cookies, I thought I was so clever thinking them up! Then I did a google search, and obviously I’m not the first person to go there, haha. I had a little trouble with the sticks – I inserted them into the raw cookies, assuming they would just bake right in – but they slid out once cooled. Not to worry, I just glued them on with the icing and everything was fine. I wish my colours were a little more vibrant, but I was going for pastel, so I didn’t want to put too much gel colouring in. I think my favourites were the ones with the coloured sugar on top, but I also liked the stripes and dots. John has asked for Marvel cookies (Batman, Spiderman, etc.) for his birthday at the end of June, so we’ll see how that goes!

 

Pink Princess Cupcakes

Source: Smitten Kitchen

Note – the original recipe is for a three-layer cake. I halved this recipe and got about 19 cupcakes.

Ingredients

Cupcakes

2 1/4 cups cake flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 1/2 + 1/8 tsp baking powder

1/4 + 1/8 tsp salt

3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks), room temperature

3/4 cup strawberry puree (thaw some frozen strawberries and stick in the blender, no need to strain)

4 egg whites

1/3 cup milk

few drops of red food colouring to make more pink

Icing

2 pkg cream cheese, softened

1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened

2 cups icing sugar

splash vanilla extract

red food colouring

Directions

1. For cake, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Add the butter and strawberry puree and mix with an electric mixer on low until blended, then increase the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy.
2. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites, milk and food colouring to blend. Add this mixture to the strawberry mixture and beat until just combined.
3. Pour into cupcake liners and bake at 350 for 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.
4. For icing, throw everything in the food processor and blend (or use electric mixer). My icing was really soft at this point, so I put it in the fridge to firm up a bit before piping on top of the cupcakes.