Savor Recipe: Over-the-Top Strawberry Cupcakes
Melted ice cream buttercream and a cookie base make these cupcakes extra delicious
I’m stalking a new chef these days — Nadiya Hussain — and this is the recipe that got me hooked. Her style of baking isn’t fussy and her flavors are over the top. Every dish is beautiful and delicious.
When I test new recipes, I always share the results with friends and neighbors. After trying these, one friend texted me that “these cupcakes blew my mind.”
I’ll be adding a cookie bottom to all of my cupcakes from now on. And the melted ice cream buttercream is so good it makes me upset that I didn’t think of it.
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 12 round vanilla sandwich cookies (I used Lady Gaga Oreos)
- 12 small to medium strawberries
- ½ cup crème fraîche
- ½ cup white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1½ tsp vanilla bean paste (or extract)
- 1 cup self-rising flour
- Ice Cream Frosting
- 1½ cups salted butter, softened slightly
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup strawberry ice cream, melted
- Freeze-dried strawberries and/or sprinkles for topping the cupcakes
Steps
1. Put the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer, sift in the powdered sugar, pour in the melted ice cream and mix to form your buttercream frosting. Cover and chill in the fridge.
2. Place 12 paper cupcake cups into a cupcake tin and put one cookie into the bottom of each paper cup. Slice the tops off the strawberries and place one strawberry upside down in the center of each cookie.
3. Put the crème fraîche into the bowl of a stand mixer, add the sugar, and mix well.
4. Add the 2 eggs one at a time, mixing well between each addition. Add the vanilla and the self-rising flour and mix everything together until the batter is smooth and creamy.
5. Put the batter into a piping bag (or use a Ziploc bag and snip off one corner) and pipe batter around each strawberry in the paper cups. You can spoon the batter around the strawberries as well.
6. Don’t overfill the cup with batter, as it will rise too much. Instead, make sure it fills just a little more than half of the cup with the top of the strawberry just showing.
7. Place the cupcakes in a preheated 350 degree oven and bake for about 15 minutes. Once they are a light golden brown, they should be ready. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean. Remove from the oven and let the cupcakes cool.
8. Spoon the frosting into a piping bag and pipe onto the top of each cupcake making a rounded mound. Or spread it on using an offset spatula.
9. Decorate with freeze-dried strawberries and/or sprinkles. These cupcakes are not only delicious, they are beautiful inside and out!
Questions? Text to Craig at 202-217-0996 or email Savor@metroweekly.com.
More Recipes:
Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
