Do these look tempting enough for a quick bake session
@ home ?
I was longing to try home made cupcakes for quite some time now...
Here I am with a quick and simple recipe for
strawberry cupcakes with white creamy frosting & rainbow sprinkles
All you need for cupcakes and frosting is as below....
Cupcakes (makes about 10-12 cupcakes):
2 cups of maida (refined flour)
1 1/2 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of sodium bi carbonate powder
3 medium sized eggs
1/2 tsp of strawberry essence (or any other essence you may like .. pineapple, vanilla, orange...)
2 cups of powdered sugar
100 gms of unsalted cooking butter
Frosting:
3 egg-whites
Castor Sugar - 100 gms
Lime juice - 1 tsp
Steps:
1. Sieve maida + baking powder + bicarb together and keep it separately (extremely important step to let air into the flour)
2. Beat 3 eggs for about 10-15 mins, till light and frothy
3. Beat sugar and butter till most sugar dissolves in butter, and then add this to the beaten eggs. Mix lightly, while avoiding to break the froth.
4. Now is the most crucial step in preparing for any cake - You need to fold in the sieved flour into the above mixture with extreme care. Most important tip here is - 'go slow, and do not hurry' :-) This is the way I do it... Use a flat spatula for folding the flour into the above mixture from outside of your bowl to inwards. The idea is to retain all the air you have incorporated till now inside the cake batter, or else, your cake would just turn into a thick dense lump!
5. In the end, add essence, any food color (if you like) in the cake batter.....and here you go...ready to bake!
6. Arrange your paper cups in a cupcake baking tray, and add only 2 spoons of batter into each of the paper cups. Make sure each paper cup is nearly half full, to ensure you have enough room for the cake to rise.
7. Place your baking tray in a preheated oven (170-180 deg C),and your cup cakes should be done in about 20-25 mins. Easiest way to check is to insert a dry knife or a metal skewer, see if it comes out clean..
8. Allow the cupcakes to cool, while you can prepare the frosting for your cupcakes. You can always enjoy these cupcakes on their own, but just in case you want to decorate these babies with lovely white frosting..then this is the way to go..
10. Frosting that I used was pretty simple. All you need to do is beat egg-whites from 3 eggs, and mix castor sugar and a bit of lime juice to it. Now, here is the catch..if you like dry and hard frosting on your cupcakes then you have to beat the egg-whites till they form sharp peaks, but if you like a rich creamy texture on your cupcakes (just like the above picture), then you just have to beat the egg-whites till they are frothy, and rest remains the same.
11. Last step is to either pipe the frosting or just top your cooled cupcakes with a spoonful of frosting, and decorate them with your favorite toppings (rainbow white chocolate sprinkles is what I used for my cupcakes).
Serve these cupcakes warm or chilled - which ever way you like, and don't forget to share them with your loved ones, it just tastes so much better!
