Pepper Hill Farm Cupcakes
Every month we have a birthday party (for the horses) at the farm and give pony rides on our Icelandic horses. My challenge is to create a new themed cupcake each month for the riders. This month I went with a spring theme and Mary Jo brilliantly came up with the idea to use jelly beans to create flowers. After some trials and errors, our collaboration resulted in some pretty cupcakes for our riders. I made plain vanilla cupcakes with a buttercream frosting and strawberry cupcakes with a strawberry-cream cheese frosting.






Spring Strawberry Cupcakes
Recipe by Michael SalmonCourse: DessertDifficulty: Medium18
Cupcakes1
hour22
minutesIngredients
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries
- Strawberry-Cream Cheese Frosting
3/4 cup chopped strawberries
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of Kosher salt
- Toppings
Jelly Beans, large
Colored decorating sugars
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350-degrees F. with the rack in the middle of the oven.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and Kosher salt.
- Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a mixer with a paddle attachment, and beat on medium-high speed for 3 minutes, scraping the mixture down as needed.
- Add the eggs to the mixer and mix until combined.
- Add the sour cream, milk and vanilla extract and mix until combined.
- Add the chopped strawberries and mix just until combined.
- Line muffin tins with 18 cupcake liners and divide the batter among the 18 liners, using a portion-control (ice cream) scoop.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool to room temperature before frosting.
- Strawberry-Cream Cheese Frosting
- Coarsely chop the strawberries and place them in a blender. Blend until smooth.
- Pour the strawberry puree in a small sauce pot, preferably thick bottomed and place the pot over medium heat. Bring the puree to a boil and reduce the heat to a simmer.
- Cook the puree, stirring occasionally, until it is reduced to about 1/4 cup. Cool the puree to room temperature.
- Place the softened butter and cream cheese in the bowl of a mixer with the paddle attachment, and beat on medium-high speed for 2 minutes. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla extract and Kosher salt. Mix until combined. Add the cooled strawberry puree reduction and mix until combined.
- Frosting and Decoration
- Place the frosting in a piping bag with a medium-sized star tip. Cover the surface of the cupcakes with stars.
- Carefully, slice the desired jelly beans lengthwise into 4 slices for the flower petals. Create stems and leaves with green jelly beans, and to prepare the centers of the flowers, simply cut the beans in half crosswise.
- Sprinkle to top of the decorated cupcake (around the flowers) with the colored sugar.