Strawberry Rose Cupcakes

When my dad showed me this recipe in Sunset magazine I couldn't wait to try it! I have always wanted to try baking with rose water. Finding the rose water was an adventure in itself. At Vitamin Cottage a worker looked at me like I was crazy when I said I was looking to use rose water in a recipe. Ha!

My mother-in-law asked us to bring a dessert for Easter and I immediately thought about these unique cupcakes. I also think these beauties would be great from Mother's Day or a bridal shower.



Strawberry Rose Cupcakes

• YIELD: Makes 16
• TOTAL:1 HOURS, 30 MINUTES

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup strawberry jam
• 1 1/2 to 2 tsp. rose water

Preparation

• 1. Preheat oven to 325°. Line 16 muffin cups with liners. Beat butter and sugar with a stand mixer until creamy. Add eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk; beat until well blended.
• 2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Gradually beat into butter mixture until well blended.
• 3. Whisk together jam and rose water to taste in a small bowl. Spread 2 heaping tbsp. batter in each liner. Top with 1 tsp. jam mixture, then another 2 heaping tbsp. batter, carefully spreading it to cover jam.
• 4. Bake cupcakes until a toothpick inserted toward the edge comes out clean, 25 to 27 minutes. Let cool in pans 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely. Spread with frosting and decorate with rose petals.

Cream Cheese-Rose Frosting

Ingredients

• 4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 to 2 tsp. rose water
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Preparation

• In a bowl with a mixer, beat cream cheese, butter, rose water, vanilla, and powdered sugar until smooth.

Instead of using rose petals I decorated the with sugar pearls.

 

 

I would like to give a shout out to my sister for keeping me company during my time in the kitchen...although I'm pretty sure it's only to lick off all the beaters, but it's nice to laugh my way through the time!!!! "Teaping Heaspoons" :) 

I made some extras to send home with my sister. I decorated these with food tattoos. :)

Hawaiian Lava Flow inspired Cupcakes

Michael and I were finally able to take our honeymoon on our 6th month anniversary. We had a romantic tropical getaway to Oahu, Hawaii. Needless to say we had a fantastic time and can't wait to go back. We stayed at the Sheration Waikiki, and one of our favorite drinks (other than Mai Tais, of course) were the Lava Flows.

 

I couldn't wait to get home and try to capture all that yummy-ness into a cupcake. This was also my first time making my own cupcake recipe.

Lava Flow Cupcakes

Since Lava Flows have a strong banana coconut smoothie flavor I started with a banana and coconut rum cake.

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup mashed ripe bananas ( 2-3 bananas)

1/4 buttermilk

2 cups  all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3-4 tablespoon of Malibu coconut rum

To add that classic red lava flow....I added 1/3 cup fresh strawberry puree. This turned the batter pink, but in the end wasn't seen.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Blend strawberry in a small blender until pureed, set aside.
3. In a large bowl, blend butter and sugar until creamy. Add the eggs, vanilla, bananas and buttermilk.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; and add to banana mixture.
5. Mix in rum and strawberry puree.
6. Fill lined cupcake holders about 3/4 full and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

I was really happy with result! It was delicious, and all intended flavors were present.

For the frosting I used  pineapple buttercream as inspiration:

1/2 butter
4 cups powdered sugar
5 tablespoons drained crushed pineapple
1 tablespoon strawberry puree
1 tablespoon pineapple juice
1 tablespoon Malibu rum

Cream butter and gradually beat in sugar until well combined. Stir in crushed pineapple, pineapple juice and rum. Beat to blend thoroughly.

I was not happy with the result. One thing was that I was getting tired and forgot to cream the butter before adding the powdered sugar and it started getting clumpy. Very sweet, too. It was okay, but I am working on perfecting it. It did, however, have the frothy look just like the actual drink. I served them for my mom's birthday :) Nobody seemed to be disappointed!