I had to bring some sort of dessert for my best buddies early bday celebration at our tennis club. Another lady was bringing brownies… so to not be outdone I figured I would go to Lazy Archers (our fancy grocery store) and spend way more money on making expensive cupcakes from scratch than just buying some from Nothing Bunt Cakes. I am very good at overcomplicating all small tasks.
So, sixty bucks later, I was ready to spend the majority of my day in the kitchen baking. And I don’t bake… So Lora must know I love her. Turns out, though, I bought too much and have enough to do another small round for our little bro’s bday next door. So that will work. Kinda feels a bit like regifting.
I was going to do the cake completely from scratch but in all honestly knew I was going to be tight on time. I didn’t see the point in buying Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Baking Flour (plus baking soda and powder which I will never use because I don’t bake) vs. Bob’s Red Mill Cake Mix Gluten Free Vanilla. I love to do everything from scratch but clearly this seemed like a pretty obvious choice. I was still gonna fuck around with what I put in the cake anyways.
Recipe Supplies:
- Bob’s Red Mill Cake Mix Gluten-Free Vanilla (one package)
- Vanilla Extract (a couple tablespoons)
- Kerrygold Butter (yes, with the salt)
- Salt
- Granulated Sugar
- Powder Sugar
- Lots of strawberries
- Lots of basil
- Heavy whipping cream
- Buttermilk
- Eggs
To make matters more fun my condo complex was having a water shut off right in the middle of the day. Doing dishes would be interesting.
Vanilla CupCakes:
Because of said water shut off, I was too nervous to use my stand mixer to make the batter (in case I could not wash the bowl… I was going to need it for the whipping cream). So, I completely disregarded the instructions on the cake batter and got to work. Apparently, you are supposed to mix the eggs, butter (I do not cook with seed oils) and water before you mix it with the powder… whoops, totally missed that part. I just combined it all at once.
I don’t really love baking because I am not good at following rules. Typically with cooking, I can kinda do whatever I want… but baking is a whole other ball game since it is like chemistry. So I was a little concerned I could have messed up the batter, but all in all, it didn’t matter. I also added 1.5 teaspoons of vanilla to it and replaced the water it called for with buttermilk. I ended up adding a small splash of water because it seemed a little thick and a pinch of salt.
I got about 18ish cupcakes out of it, and they took about 22 minutes to cook in my oven at 325 degrees.
Next time, I will make the cupcakes a bit smaller (so there is more room for fillings in the glass cups, though). So, I think it could probably yield closer to 22-24 cupcakes.
Strawberry, Basil Salsa:
While the cupcakes were baked, I made my sweet basil strawberry salsa. It just kinda felt like I was making salsa. Probably not the best name. Cut all the strawberries into small cubes and diced lots of basil. I just kept mixing and tasting until I got a nice balance of basil with the strawberries. I definitely wanted to taste the basil. Squeezed a little bit of lime and a couple of big dashes of sugar to taste. Oh, and the tiniest bit of salt. Once I was happy with that, I made the whipped cream.
Whipped Cream Frosting:
By the way, the water never was shut off, so my worries were pointless.
I wanted the cream to be a little sweeter because it was kind of like a frosting. I mixed 1 cup of heavy whipping cream with two teaspoons powdered sugar and 1.5 teaspoons vanilla.
Mixed in the stand mixer for a few minutes until it thickened up.
Cupcake Assembly:
I have these Vikko 3.75 Ounce Shot Glasses that I use for dinner parties. They are perfect for small desserts, etc…
I was going to put my cupcakes in these. They ended up being the perfect size for a top and bottom layer. If I cut the cupcakes in half horizontally, you could kinda smoosh the bottom on the bottom of the glass and use the top of the cupcake as a lid after filling.
So I did 7 layer cupcakes…
- 1. Cake on the Bottom
- 2. Salsa
- 3. Whipped Cream
- 4. Salsa
- 5. Cupcake top
- 6. Whipped cream
- 7. Half a strawberry and basil leaf garnish
Repeated this 12 times and was good to go. Now, my biggest concern was, “How the hell am I going to get these all to our club without destroying them and or my car?”. Fortunately for me, my neighbor loves to bake and has all the baking gear I would never own… Cupcake carrier and patty cakes (Patrick) to the rescue!
The cupcakes ended up being a huge hit! Will definitely be making these again.
