Sweet As Sugar

Originally, I made these for a birthday for one of the girls at work. But honestly, who doesn't love a little Strawberry Buttercream Devils Food Cake Cupcakes for Valentine's?! No one. My point exactly.

These babies are light, and fluffy, and moist, and just enough sweet without giving you a cavity or gut rot, i.e. they're perfect.

I used the Devils Food Cake recipe (thanks, Martha) the first time for my grandma's 80th birthday this past October, and I loved them so much that I wanted to do them again. I found the Strawberry Buttercream frosting from Rosie over at Sweetapolita. Her blog is DEFINITELY worth checking out if you enjoy baking, or eating for that matter.

Alright, bring on the chocolate.

What you'll need:

      Cupcakes

• 3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup hot water
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup sour cream, room temperature

      Frosting- this is the original. For mine, I ended up doing about 2/3 cup pureed fresh strawberries.

5 large, fresh egg whites (150 g)
1-1/4 cups (250 g) sugar
1-1/2 cups (3 sticks)(340 g) butter, cut into cubes and cool, but not cold
2 teaspoons (10 ml) pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup (59 ml)(or to taste) strawberry puree OR a handful (about 1 cup, or more to taste) of fresh, washed, and dried strawberries, chopped
pinch of salt
few drops pink food colouring (optional)

First off, you'll want to preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and line your muffin tin with cupcake liners.

In a small bowl, you'll want to combine your cocoa with your hot water, and create essentially liquid chocolate.

Next, take your flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, and combine those together. Mix it just to make sure everything is evenly dispersed.

In a medium saucepan, throw in your three (!) sticks of butter and melt those bad boys.

Once you have your butter melted, add in your sugar. NOTE: DO NOT ADD YOUR SUGAR BEFORE YOUR BUTTER IS MELTED. The first time around I did that, and I ended up having to pour everything into a bowl and sticking it in the microwave in order to finish melting the butter. Save yourself the headache and fully melt the butter before you add your sugar.

Once your butter is fully melted, and your sugar has absorbed pretty much all of it (it's not going to go smooth, there's just too much sugar there, so don't worry about it not dissolving), put it into your mixing bowl. With your paddle attachment, beat it on medium-low speed for about 5 minutes or so, until the bottom of the bowl is no longer warm.

Next, add your eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each time.

From there, add in your vanilla (fully combine), then your cocoa mixture.

Time to add the flour! First, get your sour cream ready, because you're going to alternate between flour mixture and sour cream. Make sure to incorporate each batch fully before adding the next. Do the first half of the flour, then the first half of the sour cream, until both are just fully combined into the batter.

Once you have your delicious completed batter (that tastes like chocolate pudding), fill each liner about 3/4 full. Throw them into the oven for 10 minutes, and then rotate for an additional 10 minutes. Use the toothpick test to make sure they're all done! (stick a toothpick into the biggest one, and if it comes out clean, you're good!)

Before you remove them from the muffin tins, let them cool in the tins for about 15 minutes first, then transfer onto a wire rack.

Cupcakes? Check!

Time for the frosting. Now, this is the first time I've made a Swiss Meringue Buttercream. I've made a standard basic buttercream plenty of times before, but I wanted something buttery and silky, and not so sweet. While I love a good sugary frosting (which a basic buttercream usually is), I was looking for a frosting that showcased the strawberry more than the sugar with a very smooth texture.

This recipe looks scary. Heck, I was scared of it at first. But it really isn't too bad. It takes some patience, and that's about it. I found some absolutely GREAT resources (here, from Rosie at Sweetapolita, and here, from Naomi at Bakers Royale) while I was mid-frosting-making, because I even questioned "am I doing this right?". If you're scared, or if you're mid-frosting-making like I was, and you're not sure if it's going quite right, take a look at these ladies' fantastic step-by-step panic-attack-reducing tutorials.

OKAY. BREAK.

First, take a paper towel. Put a bit of lemon juice on it, and rub that on the inside of a glass mixing bowl. Why? It will remove any grease that is left over on the mixing bowl. Grease = no swiss meringue buttercream. If you don't have lemon juice, vinegar works too.

Take a medium sauce pan and put about an inch to 2 inches in it, and bring it to almost a boil. Put your eggs and sugar in your mixing bowl. Put that over the almost boiling water. Make sure that the bottom of your bowl does not touch the water. For real. Don't cook your eggs. Take your whisk, and continuously mix (but don't beat) the mixture. If you have a candy thermometer, awesome. Point to you. If you don't, that's totally fine, I don't either. Bring this mixture to 160 degrees Fahrenheit on your candy thermometer, OR, when you rub a bit of the mixture between your fingers, you should not be able to feel any of the sugar granules between them. That's how you know it's done.

Once the egg whites have been heated enough, take your whisk attachment and beat the egg white/sugar mixture on high until the bottom is neutral, which takes about 10 minutes. By the end, you should get stiff peaks.

Once you get to stiff peaks, switch your attachment from the whisk to the paddle, and on low speed, start adding butter one cube at a time, making sure they're fully incorporated before adding more.

NOTE: your buttercream might curdle, like this. See how it's kind of bumpy and textured? It's curdled. DO NOT PANIC. Keep mixing. If it ends up thin, put the buttercream into the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to cool it down, then continue mixing with the paddle.

Once it comes back, add in the vanilla and salt.

See, it's nice and smooth. From there, add in your strawberries (again, I more than doubled what the recipe calls for. I wanted super strawberry-ey.) and your food coloring, if necessary. I added just a couple of drops to give it a little more oomph. 

Go ahead and either spread the icing on, or give piping a try! Don't have an icing bag? Don't worry, I didn't either. I put some into a quart ziploc bag and cut the tip off. Worked pretty darn nice huh?

What Valentine's-y/Birthday-ey treats are you making these days? Especially with V-Day coming up, what are your DIY presents? Those are always the best :)

xx

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