FROSTED STRAWBERRY ORANGE CHOCOLATE-CHIP CUPCAKES…Strawberry fields forever!
Frosted Strawberry Orange Chocolate-chips Cupcakes…merging flavours!
I was making mini vanilla cupcakes for a friend’s daughters’ birthday the other day,& had some batter leftover. With Arfi’s Cupcake Spectacular 2008 on my mind, I scrabbled around in the fridge looking for something different I could put together…other than a regular vanilla muffin. AHA…found 4 strawberries which were crying out to be used! Further exploration revealed some oranges too, so I set to work. These cupcakes were flavoured beautifully & made luscious little bites…good enough for dessert too; can’t go wrong with strawberry, orange & chocolate! Topped them off with a strawberry buttercream & a chocolate ganache!
A cupcake (the common US term) or fairy cake (the common British term) 
is a small cake designed to serve one person, usually made in a small paper cup container. As with larger cakes, frosting and other cake decorations, such as sprinkles, are defining characteristics of modern cupcakes.
Cupcakes are often served during a celebration, such as children’s classroom birthday parties. Additionally they can be served as an accompaniment to afternoon tea.A simple cupcake uses the same ingredients as most other standard cakes – incorporating butter, sugar, eggs, and flour.
Actually I don’t make cupcakes that often anymore. I reserve them for birthdays or gifts, & normally make muffins at home because I find them more wholesome, like these ‘Banana-Walnut-Chocolate chips’ ones that I made this morning. They have some whole wheat flour thrown in too! The recipe is here is you wanna take a look at it.
Back to the CUPCAKE story…While making the vanilla mini cupcakes, the mind was working overtime. I didn’t have an after school snack ready that day; necessity being the mother of invention (of hungry kids), the batter couldn’t have been leftover at a better time! I believe the cupcakes were finger-licking good…the kids enjoyed them! I used a buttercream frosting I once found on the net. It’s known as ‘Kittencal’s Buttercream Frosting‘ & is really very good. licking the buttercream off was the kids slurpiest moment!
Ingredients:
Butter – 1/2 cup
Sugar – 1 1/4 cups
Eggs – 2 large
Flour – 2 cups
Baking powder – 2 tsps
Salt – 1/4 tsp
Strawberries – 100 gms /chopped
Strawberry essence – 1 tsp
Zest of 1 orange
Milk – 1 cup
Chocolate-chips – 1/2 cup
Method:
-
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Line a 12 muffin tray (this recipe makes 18 cupcakes)
-
Sift the flour + baking powder + salt 3 times. Set aside.
-
Cream the butter with sugar, followed by the eggs & strawberry essence.
-
Beat in the chopped strawberries & zest.
-
Add 1/3 of the flour & mix in on low speed, followed by 1/3 of the milk. Repeat 2 more times.
-
Fold in the chocolate chips & pour into cupcake liners filling it 2/3 full.
-
Bake for 20 minutes till golden brown…& smelling divine!
-
Remove from tray & cool completely on rack.
Ingredients for frosting:
Butter – 6 tbsps (softened)
Cream – 3 tbsps (35% fat; or you may use 18% cream or half and half or full-fat milk, but will not be as creamy)
Icing Sugar – 3 cups
Essence & colours as required ( I used 1 tsp of strawberry essence & a few drops of pink colour)
Method:
-
Beat the butter till creamy. Add the cream & icing sugar & whip till you reach the desired consistency. Flavour & colour as required!
-
Pipe onto cooled cupcakes & decorate with sprinkles, sliced strawberries, dragees, chocolate leaves, ganache…
Frosted Strawberry Orange Chocolate-chip Cupcakes…
My entry for Cupcake Spectacular 2008 @ HomemadeS!
And while the mind was humming the Beatles number ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, Elly’s blog event, ‘Eat to the Beat‘ was rocking my mind. Elly @ Elly Says Opa says “I love music as much as I love food, so combining the two for my first try at hosting a blog event was a given. I’m excited to present to you Eat to the Beat–my foray into hosting a blog event. I really hope that many of you will have the chance to participate! For this event, please make and blog about a food or drink that somehow relates to a song, an album, a band, etc.”
There you go Elly….my mind is rocking to ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ & its a great idea to merge two inseparables…music & food! You ROCK!!! Am looking forward to the next one already!!
Deeba @ PAB
About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.
23 Comments
Manggy
Those look great Deeba! I love the pink frosting with the strawberries, even if I’m a guy, haha 🙂
Passionate baker...& beyond
Doesn’t matter to me Manggy…the bottom line is that you love it! Sorry for the strawberry overdose! They’re gonna disappear very soon & I’m trying to make hay when the sun shines!
Passionate baker...& beyond
Doesn’t matter to me Manggy…the bottom line is that you love it! Sorry for the strawberry overdose! They’re gonna disappear very soon & I’m trying to make hay when the sun shines!
Purnima
Deeba, these cupcakes look colorfully yummy! The chocolate leaves,dragees,chocolate piping all look festive, along with the cute zardosi band on which its been clicked! Tks for sharing a visual treat!!
Asha
Cup cakes are always the fave of kids and adults alike! Strawberry and Orange combo is Heavenly!!
Anamika:The Sugarcrafter
nice cupcakes..good colour combination, too !
Kalai
Cupcakes just make you feel like a kid again, don’t you think? I love the color of the frosting!! Beautiful combo of flavors, too! 🙂
Alpa
BEAUTIFUL!! love the pink buttercream with the orange zest curl in the top picture! I love all of kittencal’s dessert recipes too! You notice how she always gets 5 stars?
Pixie
Gorgeous cupcakes with wonderful combination of ingredienty. mmmmm
meeso
I love the design on top, all that frosting is tempting me 🙂
Namratha
Oh those cupcakes look amazing, love ’em!!! Well decorated too, and love the combo of orange, chocolate and strawberry too…can’t wait to try these 🙂
Arfi Binsted
I think they are spectacular, since the kids enjoy them. That what matters the most, doesn’t it? Thank you for your contribution on Cupcakes Spectacular 2008, Deeba! I’ll let you know when the round-up is posted.
Cheers.
ab
Rachel
Divinely!
Rosie
What gorgeous cupcakes!!! I love all the pink and strawberries Deeba!
PheMom
Hi Deeba,
What gorgeous cupcakes. I love the colors and especially the pictures on the fabric that contrasted the color. Beautiful and very tasty looking!
Proud Italian Cook
Deeba, Spectacular these are! I’m sure the taste was a WOW!
Sia
gorgeous one as usual deeba 🙂
Mansi Desai
Looks great as usual Deeba:)
Rina
I love the first picture to the core… Gorgeous presentations…
singairishgirl
My daughter will love these strawberry cupcakes. She loves strawberries. 🙂 And chocolate of course 😉
Angela
Strawberries and chocolate.. what’s not to like? I made these yesterday, they turned out super… I had to keep the frosting aside as the cakes turned out a tad too sweet (must be the German sugar I’m using). Thks for sharing! Angela
Passionate baker...& beyond
Hi Angela…I guess it must be the sweet strawberries you get there. Ours are quite tart…
Passionate baker...& beyond
Hi Angela…I guess it must be the sweet strawberries you get there. Ours are quite tart…