Double Strawberry-Pink Cupcakes

If you live in the PNW, you know that spring typically needs some help when it comes to springing! April showers, and even hail, are real. I attribute the dreary weather with why I’ve been unmotivated in the kitchen and hence haven’t been writing here on my blog. (Well, that and we’re prepping for a big move that has me distracted!) But the promise of spring flowers, and longer days have me excited to start making all the pretty pastel Easter-y dishes and desserts. Cheery shades of yellow and orange, springy green, bright pink and even robin’s-egg blue are giving me inspiration. But for now, I want to share the Double Strawberry Cupcakes from Tieghan Gerard of Half Baked Harvest. These are chockful of strawberry goodness in the form of homemade strawberry jam and freeze-dried strawberries. Cupcakes that are sure to make you happy with that little sprig of chamomile smiling up at you.

Oh hello chamomile 😊

Cheers to Spring Color!

Let’s take a moment to appreciate color. Color is a very important sensory property in the food we eat. Psychologically, we eat with our eyes first and we expect the color of our food to match its taste. In her book, “Joyful”, Ingrid Fetell Lee explains the joy behind eating, “Food offers sensory satiation, not just physical nutrients ….” Probably explains why some of us can spend hours scrolling through colorful food on Instagram and why salads and desserts are my two favorite things to make. I love to create a colorful display with fresh produce and add fruits and decorative color to all the desserts.

Orange acts as an appetite stimulant mainly because it increases our mental activity and makes us feel hungry. Green promotes healthy eating. Cheery yellow relates to happiness and stimulates eating. Interestingly, pink and blue do not increase our appetites. Aha, but red and turquoise do. So, we’ll call these cupcakes strawberry-pink! To me, pink frosting with sprinkles is the definition of joy and celebration! And in my house, you’ll most likely get your cupcake served on an aqua or turquoise plate.

Double Strawberry Cupcakes 

I halved the recipe to make nine cupcakes. Four for my husband, five for me. Or was it three for him and six for me? In any case … see the Half Baked Harvest website for the full recipe if you need 18 fun pink cupcakes.

Ingredients you’ll need for the cupcakes:

• Freeze-dried strawberries, pulverized/powdered

  • You can find freeze-dried strawberries at most grocery stores. I get mine at Trader Joe’s and have seen them in the cereal aisle at Kroger stores. 

• Coconut oil, melted

• Plain greek yogurt 

• 1 egg

• Sugar (or honey)

• Strawberry jam (I used my homemade freezer jam)

• Vanilla extract

• All-purpose flour

• Baking powder

• Baking soda

• Kosher salt

• Milk

Ingredients for the Strawberry Frosting:

• Cream cheese, at room temperature

• Salted butter

• Powdered sugar

• Vanilla extract

• Warm milk

To decorate the cupcakes:

• Freeze-dried strawberry powder

• Chamomile

Oh, there you are again sweet chamomile.☀️

To make the cupcakes, you’ll need to make the strawberry powder by blending the freeze-dried strawberries into a fine consistency. I love this immersion hand blender that I bought at Costco. The amount of strawberries for half a recipe doesn’t warrant using a full-sized food processor. You could use a personal-sized blender as well.

Just whip up the batter in a bowl, no special equipment needed. Beat the coconut oil, yogurt, eggs, sugar, strawberry jam, and vanilla together first. Then add the dry ingredients and about 2/3 of the strawberry powder, followed by the milk. Divide the batter into cupcake liners placed into your cupcake pan. Bake at 350° F for 25 minutes.

Once cool, use a hand mixer to beat together the frosting ingredients for about two minutes. If you’re making the full recipe, you many want to use a stand mixer. I used a number #1M tip to swirl the frosting onto the cupcakes. I definitely need more practice in this category, but hey, it worked. I found these cupcakes to have more of a muffin texture rather than a cake texture. All the more reason to eat them for breakfast I suppose. And, any excuse for me to buy chamomile. I dusted each cupcake with more strawberry powder and added a little chamomile that I picked up from Trader Joe’s. Chamomile is so happy in a vase on the counter and it makes me smile every time I walk by.

An aerial view of double strawberry cupcakes with chamomile 🍓

Now that I’ve found my way back to the kitchen, I have a lot of work to do! There are so many delicious and colorful spring baking projects on my “to-make” list.

Here’s what I’m dreaming about …

Yellow. This is my favorite spring color in the kitchen. I LOVE vanilla custard. Should I make a variation of banana or coconut cream pie? Or this recipe for Vanilla Slices from Edd Kimber’s One Tin Bakes book?

I’m in love with these rich custardy vanilla slices from One Tin Bakes, Edd Timber.

I love vanilla so much that lemon usually gets put in second place for me. Yet, I do like me some lemon too. I think I’ll have to make some type of lemon bar or lemon sugar cookies or lemon bread. Or all of the above.

Ever wonder why you’re compelled to buy M&Ms in seasonal colors? They all taste the same, yet the pastel ones are really satisfying this time of year! They look adorable in a green-tinted coconut nest on top a banana cream pie. I’m also seeing a cookie with M&Ms or mini Cadbury eggs in my future.

Marshmallow is a big contender for Easter as well. For the record, I do not eat Peeps but I sure want to buy them all up! Last year about this time I made the “mostly famous in Eugene, Oregon” Frosted Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies. I helped a friend make s’more cookies last week and have been contemplating a version with pastel M&Ms and Peeps marshmallows.

Last but not least, I’m always torn between making or not making a carrot cake …

And yes, this could be the year I finally frost something with a speckled robin’s egg blue color (to match my house).

Spring has sprung in this kitchen!