Strawberry Days are Soon to be Near

On Sunday some friend had us over for dinner and when we asked if we could bring anything, they suggested that we bring a light dessert.

Not a single dessert that I knew how to make sounded light and yummy. As we were on our way to the grocery store to walk up and down the aisles until something came to us, all I could think of was lemon. I wanted a dessert that had lemon in it. And strawberries. Honestly I think I just really wanted a smoothie.

I googled lemon desserts and this lovely cupcake recipe came up. I had to make it...I mean strawberries and lemon in a cupcake? Yes please!

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Love and Olive Oil  

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:


Cupcakes:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup oil
1 cup full fat coconut milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest*
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Frosting:

2 ounces of fresh strawberries
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large egg whites
6 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature*
2 tablespoons lemon juice (approximately 1 large lemon)*
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

*Preheat oven to 350 F.

*In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add sugar and brown sugar and mix. Whisk together oil, coconut milk, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix until relatively smooth. Fill cupcake liners with a scant 1/4 cup of batter (should be just under 2/3 of the way full). Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden, and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack and allow to cool completely

*To make frosting, first wash and hull strawberries and toss them into a food processor. Puree strawberries and set aside.

*Add sugar and egg whites into a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream. Remove the bowl from the heat.

*Using the whisk attachment on a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.

*Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a tablespoon at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes.

*Once the buttercream is thick and smooth, gradually beat in the lemon juice on medium speed, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla. By this point you should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. You can stop at this point if you want to stick with lemon buttercream. For strawberry buttercream, gradually add in strawberry puree, beating on medium speed until well incorporated.

These cupcakes are now my favorite cupcakes and they were light and refreshing. Jackpot!  It tasted like summer, which made me even more excited for the up coming months! I made a couple of changes though to the recipe:

*I wanted the cake to taste more lemony so I added the zest of a whole large lemon.

*I added more than 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to the frosting. I really wanted it to taste like a strawberry lemonade.

*The frosting tasted too much like butter to me, next time I will reduce the butter to 4 ounces instead of 6 ounces.

Enjoy!