While shopping at Whole Foods, my son challenged me to make a strawberry cupcake and then layer it like a strawberry shortcake with vanilla icing and fresh strawberries.
It was like our very own Cupcake Wars. I ran back to the kitchen and grabbed a package of freeze dried organic strawberries that I happen to have in the pantry and turned them into a powder like my friend Anja taught me to do for these shortbread cookies. Then I mixed it into my recipe for Luke’s Angel Cake which I halved to make a dozen cupcakes using about 1/3 of a cup of the strawberry powder.
While the cupcakes were baking, I quartered the recipe for the frosting from Luke’s Darth Vader Cake and made it vanilla by leaving out the cacao powder and food coloring.
When the cupcakes were just cooled, I cut the top off, smeared the middle with frosting and topped that section with slices of strawberries. Then I did the same on the top.
My son, the judge, gave me a thumbs up for decoration! But I got a sideways thumb for the taste. Even though the frosting was amazing, he said the cake was too crumbly. That didn’t stop him from eating his fair share but just a note on my baking. Next time, I have to figure out a new method for making pink cupcakes. But, we had a great time and it just goes to show how creativity extends to the kitchen.
Happy 2015 to you and yours! Here is to many more days of
vegan baking, cooking, and projects in the kitchen!