Strawberry Vanilla Cupcakes

I've been experimenting with making cupcakes from scratch lately.  I figure I'll conquer the actual cupcake, then go on to icing, toppings, etc, so for now I am still using store bought icing.  My chocolate cupcakes are great, but I am struggling a bit to develop a good vanilla cupcake recipe.  The flavor of these was good, but they turned out a little dry.  I think they main issue was that I over-baked them, so I may try them again at some point.

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• Duncan Hines Frosting Creations Strawberry Shortcake frosting
• fresh strawberries, sliced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375.  Line cupcake trays with paper liners
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add vanilla extract
4. Beat in eggs one at a time
5. Fold flour into mixture
6. Spoon into cupcake trays and bake 12-15 minutes
7. Allow to cool
8. Mix frosting per directions on can and frost cupcakes
9. Add two slices of fresh strawberries to each cupcake

Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

This past weekend, I went to a housewarming party for a few of my friends.  My roommate and I were asked to supply a dessert.  Obviously this was perfect for me.  We immediately thought of taking cupcakes, but what kind? There are so many options!  While browsing the baking aisle at Kroger, my roommate and I came across a boxed cake with a picture of pineapple upside down cake on the front.  We immediately decided we wanted to make pineapple upside down cupcakes.  We combined three recipes and added a touch of our own and came up with delicious and moist cupcakes.  We even had some leftover batter so we made a small cake to keep for ourselves.

Ingredients

Topping

• 2 cans pineapple slices in pineapple juice (not heavy syrup)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine or butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 24 Maraschino cherries

Cake

• 1 box Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Pineapple Supreme Cake Mix
• 1 (3.4 oz) package vanilla instant pudding mix
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup pineapple juice, from pineapples used for topping

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Spray cupcake pan with nonstick spray. Do not use paper liners!
3. Melt butter in a microwave safe bowl.  Add brown sugar until fully mixed. Scoop evenly into bottom of cupcake pans.
4. Cut pineapple slices into thirds.  Place two of the thirds around outside of the bottom of each cup. Place a Maraschino cherry in the center of the pineapple.
5. Mix ingredients for cake as directed on the box, substituting pineapple juice for water and adding the pudding mix.
6. Pour cake on top of pineapple and cherries. Be careful not to fill the cups too much.  Each should be filled almost to the surface.
7. Bake 18-20 minutes or until cupcakes are cooked (we baked ours a few minutes longer)
8. Allow to cool in trays for approximately 5 minutes.  Then, run a knife around each cupcake.  Invert onto cooling racks and allow to cool completely.
9. Enjoy!

Hope you enjoy!

Welcome!

Welcome to High Degree!

I'm starting this blog to keep track of everything I bake (and I bake A LOT).  I am a recent graduate of the University of Louisville (Go Cards!) and am currently pursuing my Masters of Engineering in Bioengineering, also at the University of Louisville.  But my real passion is in baking.  There is rarely a time where there is not a home baked item in our kitchen, and my roommates fully support this.  This blog is all about making a mess in the kitchen, experimenting, and not doing everything by the book.