Summer is here and we are starting to get local berries in our supermarkets. I thought this would be the perfect time to make some very berry cupcakes! They came out a little thin. They barely rose so if you try them out, you can try to put more baking powder if you like. I tried doubling the icing recipe this week because I’m always scared I’ll run short while piping it on the cupcakes. It turned out to be way too much! I had a lot left over and I feel like there is too much on the cupcakes. So when I wrote it down here, I wrote the single recipe. Something else I learned this week: when running out of paper cupcake cups, you can always make some with parchment paper.  And here is something I learned last week: goat’s milk butter is no substitute. I tried it because I saw it has less cholesterol, but it alters the taste in a bad way. Here is this week’s recipe for 12 cupcakes:

cake:

- 3/4 stick of butter ( 1/4 cup + 2 tbs of butter)

- 3/4 cup of sugar

- 2 eggs

- 1 cup of strawberry, raspberry and blueberry puree

- 1 2/3 cup of flour

- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

method:

- preheat oven to 350 (325 for convection ovens)

- beat butter until light and fluffy

- add sugar and beat until mixed

- add eggs one at a time and mix in between each addition

- add the berry puree and combine

- add the flour and baking powder and combine

- put cupcake cups in muffin pan and scoop the cupcake batter in the cups

- bake for 20 minutes

- let cool completely before icing

filling:

- 3 big strawberries

- handfull of raspberries

- handfull of blueberries

- 3 tbs of berry puree

method:

- cut the strawberries in small pieces

- place all the berries in a bowl and squish with a fork

- add the berry puree and mix together

italian buttercream:

- 1 egg white

- 4 tsp of water

- 6 tbs of sugar

- 10 tbs of butter

- 2 tbs of berry puree + 1/4 cup of berry puree sifted

- a bit of blue food colouring if you want to make little flowers

method:

- beat egg white up in snow adding 1 tbs of sugar midway

- put the rest of the sugar and the water together in a pot and bring to 116 degrees celsius (soft ball state)

- add the sugar syrup to the egg whites while still beating at slowest speed

- beat until cooled, touched the bottom of the bowl to make sure its at least body temperature

- add the butter a little bit at a time and beat in between each addition

- beat until you get a nice fluffy texture

- add the raspberry puree

- add a drop of blue food colouring to the left over icing to make little blue flowers

Enjoy!