Strawberry Rhubarb Pie in a Cupcake!

When faced with two such delicious options as pie and cupcakes...why choose? Instead, let's put them together into one new, completely delicious and tempting sweet treat! I'm so excited about these cupcakes it's not even funny. Seriously. I may not even share them with anyone. Actually, I take that back...I just did the math on how many hours I'd have to spend in the gym and how many calories I'd have to give up over the next few weeks to make up for it. Nevermind. I'll just make the one that I do eat last. :)

My all-time favorite pie is strawberry rhubarb. If you've never had it, you must give it a try. You MUST. The tart rhubarb pairs so well with the sweetness of the strawberry that you'd think they were made for each other. A match made in heaven. A treat for your taste buds. I really could go on and on but, suffice it to say, it's fabulous.

Rhubarb - just beautiful!
*original photo here*

Here in Florida, we have a hard time finding rhubarb because it's such a hit or miss thing for the grocery stores to have it in stock. I actually mentioned this to my boss's wife and two days later she came into work with a package of this delicious vegetable for me - sweetest lady EVER! Rhubarb looks like celery but is a pink color and can be found with the berries. Funnily enough, not two days after she brought this in for me, I found a larger package at Publix and bought it too. I chopped all of it up and it's been sitting in my freezer, just waiting for me to decide what to do with it. Well, now I have and I'm sharing it with you.

"Spring"ing Forward With Almond Cupcakes

The pretty little cupcakes :)

Hey friends. It's back to the sweet stuff from the land of meat and potatoes for this post. This is where I'm comfortable. It's home. The fluffy deliciousness of these white almond cupcakes is one of the many reasons why I have a love affair with cupcakes. I made this cake for the first time for my sister's wedding last year. It was such a huge hit and my cousin, Elizabeth (or "Licka" as we call her), fell in love immediately. Yes, she may kill me for putting her nickname out there in cyber space for all to see but it's how I think of her. She turned 18 last month but I still remember her as a little 2 yr old squirt with blond hair who used to look up at me from her playpen, waiting to be picked up. She has grown into quite the young lady with a personality bigger than life. She makes me laugh constantly and we love when she comes down to visit! So, Lick, this one's for you! ;)

Licka - isn't she adorable? Love this girl!

First things first. The cupcake. I came across this recipe last year when I needed a fluffy almond cake for one of the tiers of my sister's Mad Hatter Tea Party wedding cake. I needed something that would be light and moist but also somewhat sturdy as it was to be formed into a topsy-turvy Mad Hatter's top hat. Cool, right?

Mad Hatter Tea Party wedding cake that I made for my sister's wedding. Photo credit goes to Lauren Mason from  Piccadilly Pictures.

Anyway, I found this as a result of a google search and will never make any other almond cake again! I love it. Now, when you read the ingredients, do not freak out! Are you ready for this? It starts with a....gulp....box mix! I know! So not like me!! However, I went with it because it is so doctored that by the time you're finished you don't even remember that Betty Crocker or Pillsbury helped. (Don't get me wrong...they have a time and a place...I just don't usually use them.) I also used this recipe for the groom's cake (my BIL asked for a vanilla/white chocolate concoction) and just left out the almond extract - also gave a great result! Another key ingredient in this cake is sour cream. I've decided that I just love sour cream in my cakes. If I'm looking for a new cake recipe and one of the options has sour cream in it, chances are I'm gonna pick that one.

White Almond Sour Cream Wedding Cake: (adapted from here)


2 18 oz boxes white cake mix
2 cups AP flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 t salt
2 2/3 cups water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 t vanilla extract
2 t almond extract
2 cups sour cream
8 egg whites

1. Whisk together all dry ingredients in a large* mixing bowl. *If you're using the full recipe, then I mean LARGE. This recipe makes a ton of batter. The full recipe made about 4 doz standard size cupcakes. And, when you're using your countertop convection oven because your regular oven is broken, and can only bake six at a time....well, you can guess how long that took!


2. Add remaining ingredients and beat on medium speed for two minutes. 

3. Pour into prepared liners, tapping to let out air bubbles. Bake at 375 for about 12 minutes or until toothpick inserted into middle comes out clean.

Strawberry Lemonade Birthday Cake

I know, I know. This is a cupcake blog. However, I'm taking a break from the norm for a coworker's birthday and decided to share it with you. If it makes you feel any better, this cake could very easily be turned into a cupcake! Whew! Now you're relieved. I'd hate to let my awesome readers down. I promise this post won't disappoint, despite it's lack of respect for the integrity of the almighty cupcake.

This week my boss asked me to take over the employee birthday celebrations. Now, let me tell you. I have never worked at a place that took better care of its employees...ever! They tend to go all out for our birthdays, personalizing the whole celebration as much as possible. So, needless to say, I have big shoes to fill. And, funnily enough, I just realized the reason for the timing of this change. There are FIVE birthdays in our office in March!! Yep, five. Which means we may just have a few more detours from our cupcake path in the next few weeks. But, back to this post.....

My first birthday girl is Ms. Rita. A sweet, funny, caring lady who makes me smile every time she laughs. She runs our shipping department. Well, to be honest, she IS our shipping department! She has a big job and does it well. In trying to figure out the right dessert to celebrate this sweet lady's birthday my options were wide open. She's not at all picky and has a child-like excitement over sweets that I just love! Hello! What baker wouldn't?? So, I decided to do a little investigative work on this cake that will help me with my next cupcake post. Remember how I kept promising Raspberry-Lemon cupcakes then posting about Triple Chocolate, cupcake liners, and oh yes, Doughnuts? Well, the very next post (after this one) will be the promised Raspberry-Lemon. Again, back to this post....

The cake that I've chosen for Rita's birthday is going to use one of the cake recipes that I'm hoping to use for the next cupcakes. Added to that is my Strawberry Cake recipe from my Sweet & Sour Strawberry Cupcakes post. Ready for it? Strawberry Lemonade Birthday Cake! Yum-my! I'm so excited about this one. It's such a classic flavor combination. Pinterest addict that I am, I came across the Lemonade cake recipe on that fantastic site (Pinterest) and decided to use it here. So, the cake goes like this - 4 alternating layers, 2 each of Strawberry Cake (see link above) and Lemonade Cake, filled and iced with a light Lemon Cream Cheese Buttercream. I "messy iced" the cake (my favorite!), put a rosette/fresh strawberry border on top, and drizzled with a homemade Strawberry Lemonade Sauce that I threw together in a pot on the stove.

Sweet + Sour + Strawberries = Success!

Don't let the word "sour" scare you! These cupcakes are fabulous, in my humble opinion. Maybe a better description would be tart or tangy but then, there goes the alliteration and, Baptist preacher's daughter/grammar-lover that I am, I just can't accept that! (Anyone who grew up in/goes to a Baptist church knows that every good message has an outline with points all beginning with the same letter...I think the grammar thing is self-explanatory). While thinking about cupcakes and researching different recipes for this post, I came across and thought of several ideas, finally deciding on strawberries. The first reason was a pretty simple one - BOGO (buy one get one)! Anyone who knows me knows that I have become a couponer extraordinaire in the last year and a half (for couponing how-to's see the button to the right for www.southernsavers.com) and in my world, BOGO = LOVE! So, I stocked up, washed, chopped and froze what I didn't need for these cupcakes and the baking began.

The second reason for this cupcake is my dear friend, Abi. Abi's favorite cake flavor is strawberry and I've always gone to a box mix for this. Now, don't get me wrong, boxed mixes have their time and place - I have a stock of them in my cabinet for things like cake emergencies, last minute parties, and church pot-lucks - but, hello, I spent a lot of time and money studying to become a pastry chef and I prefer to do things from scratch as much as possible. There's just something about the process of taking a plethora (love that word) of ingredients on the counter, combining them in a bowl, and having a beautiful, delicious creation come out of the oven. Anyway, back to Abi. Abi and her husband, Chase just had their first baby - Thunder Remington - and let me tell you, HE IS PRECIOUS! I can't wait to hear him call me Miss Cupcake (my buddy, Chandler from my first post, is his cousin). Our church threw Abi a shower, for which I made the cupcakes, and I vowed then and there that I would find/create a from scratch recipe before I made her cupcakes again. How ridiculous that I had never tried before. Well, now I have and am so pleased with the results!

To make these delicious, pretty-in-pink cupcakes I took my basic white chiffon cake and changed some things here and there, drawing from ideas I found online. I added pureed strawberries, substituted vanilla extract with raspberry, added a little red food coloring, and used a mixture of sour cream and milk for the liquids. The result is a moist, light, pink cupcake that is divine. The one thing I would change next time is using strawberry extract instead of the raspberry I had on hand for a slightly stronger strawberry flavor. As for the icing, I used my basic cream cheese icing and added sour cream to it. I got the idea from a recipe I saw online that added cream to the icing. This intrigued me. However, as I prefer a slightly tangy, less sweet cream cheese icing, I used sour cream. Again, next time I may add strawberry extract to the icing...maybe not. And, of course, the crowning glory of each cupcake is half a strawberry. One of the many things I remember from culinary school is my Plated Desserts instructor drilling into us that you never serve strawberries on a dessert with the green leaves and stem...next time I think I will though. I just love the look of a little strawberry, completely intact, on top...so cute! Shhh...don't tell my instructor.

So, there you have it. My first custom cupcake creation. Don't worry...tabs are coming soon where I will post pictures and list all of my recipes so you can try them and let me know what YOU think. Not all of the cupcakes I bake and write about here will be mine. After all, I have some fabulous tried and true recipes that I got from many different sources that I wouldn't change a thing about. I really wanted something of my own for this first one, though, and I must say that I feel a certain level of accomplishment. Thank you to all of you who have encouraged me thus far! I hope that you like what you see. Speaking of which, before I go, let me ask. What do you think of my new look? Now, this I cannot take credit for. My beautiful, talented friend, Sarah Yoder, is the creator and artist behind the look. I'm truly blessed to have such a talented friend in my life and am so very thankful for the awesome work she's done. Check out her blog at www.lifeonwalnutstreet.blogspot.com and let her know what you think of her work. Thanks for stopping by and again, happy reading and most importantly, happy cupcake-ing!


Sweet & Sour Strawberry Cupcakes:

2 sticks unsalted butter
2 1/2 c granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
5 egg whites
1 t raspberry extract
1 t red food coloring
1 1/4 c pureed strawberries
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 t each baking soda and baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 c sour cream
1/2 c milk

Cream Cheese Icing:

2 8oz pckgs cream cheese
2 sticks unsalted butter
3 1/2 c confectioner's sugar
1 t vanilla extract
1/3 c sour cream
1/2 t red food coloring (or enough to reach desired color)

For the cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1. In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar until combined
2. Add egg yolks one at a time, then raspberry extract, food coloring and strawberries; beat until combined
3. Sift dry ingredients and add to strawberry mixture alternately with milk and sour cream, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients
4. Mix just until combined
5. In another bowl, whisk egg whites until stiff and add to batter in small amounts, folding gently, until just combined
6. Bake until top springs back when touched.

Yield: 36 cupcakes

For the icing:

1. Combine cream cheese and butter.
2. Add vanilla, food coloring, and sour cream and mix until smooth.
3. Whisk in sugar, a little at a time, then beat until happy with consistency. 

Icing will appear slightly runny. Firm up in refrigerator before piping onto cupcakes. You may top with fresh strawberries if desired.