#3- Sprinkles Strawberry Cupcakes

Sorry for delay in post. I made these last Tuesday night but haven't had time to post them until now.
Ok, Backstory...as you have slightly gained sight of my obsession with cupcake, last weekend I was watching an episode of Cupcake Wars. One of the judges was a fellow blogger (although way more popular than I) Natalie Slater, creator of the blog, "Bake and Destroy." There she talked about her experiences on cupcake wars and her times with the founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes, Candace Nelson. Do you know Sprinkles Cupcakes, because you should if you don't...here's the back-story. Click Here So on this website, she gave out the recipe of Sprinkles Cupcakes, Strawberry Cupcakes. I knew it would be good, so I copy pasted, printed and preheated the oven.

- What I Didn't Have in the cupboard...
What I love is that this recipe called for fresh strawberries! The picture below is the REAL strawberry puree' that i added to the cake batter and the icing. And i had depleted my sugar and powdered sugar supply, so I picked up those as well.

- What's on the iPod?
Now I wanted to feel kind of cool here b/c i was making such a sophisticated cupcake, so I listened to some Michael Buble' and some Jazz. Completely necessary.

- Why this cupcake?
When you find a Sprinkles recipe, or a successful recipe from any famous eateries, you should at least try to make it once. And Cyd's has a strawberry cupcake that's REALLY good and I told Bonnie, our pastry chef that I would try it and bring it in.

- What did I Change?
I added just the slightest hint of almond extract. Rumor has it, that's like the magic dust of any vanilla based cakes. Also, i discovered that the way to a moist cupcake is to take it out as soon as you can touch the top without any sticky residue.

- The Final Results....
The final result was amazing. I actually took the batch with me to work to compare with our strawberry cupcakes. We compared what was in each cupcake that made them different. I LOVED the cake. It was sooo lite and refreshing. Now the frosting tasted very amateur and over sweet. I used 3-1/2 cups of powdered sugar and it seemed like a lot but i did it to stay with the recipe. That would be about the only thing I would cut back on.

- The Mac-O-Meter....
Mac did not get to eat one until the other day. When he did eat it, he had to take two bites. I assume it was to savor the flavor. Moose, Mac's sidekick at the moment, got one as well. Between the two of them, I would say around 10.5 seconds.

All in all, I think this is my favorite cupcake so far. It is so smooth which is a weird adjective for a cupcake, but man! Not sure what the next flavor will be, but I'm starting it here in a few minutes. I'm feeling a good ganache.