Did you send your entry to Culinary Smackdown Battle-Mango Desserts?Please see details of the ongoing event here. Hurry..just a week more to go, contest ends 28th April 2011, Pacific time.
So I have reached the 100th post mark.Woo Hoo!! Welcome! It’s a special day on Sinfully Spicy today.A sweet treat to celebrate a milestone as this is long due on my blog.My first blog post was not a dessert recipe,I did not even notice when the 50th post passed by.I would have missed this time around too had I not compiled the recipe index for the blog a few weeks back.It was then that I noticed that I have whopping 97 recipes on my blog in a span of just 9 months.Phew!
I think I will reserve description of my blogging journey so far for July,when I complete a year of blogging.Do remember to stop by then.Today its about YOU.I want to personally thank each one of you who take out few minutes from your day to stop by at Sinfully Spicy and appreciate what I do.Its all the kind words that I read from each one of you that brighten up my sometimes gloomy days.I was vacillating between whether to continue blogging or not a couple of months back,it was a difficult time but I guess I made a good decision to carry on.On the cue,I got mails from few readers who tried out the recipes from the blog and liked them.It was such a big confidence booster and kept me going.Thanks so much.There’s no looking back since then.
Sinfully Spicy is now a part of the our weekly menu planning & grocery shopping. To say the least,blogging has played such an important role in preserving the recipes of my family for all the coming years.I have started my own blog to refer to our family favorite recipes sometimes.My sincere wish is that someday my children and grand children will use this blog to cook recipes in their kitchen.Amen!
Other than that, what makes me happy is that during the course of few months I have met so many beautiful people from around the world.With few of them, I share more than just food.I love you guys.You are such an awesome company.I may have not met any of you but you are so much a part of my daily life.Thanks for being there and accepting me as a part of this wonderful food blogger community.Thanks so much.I would also like to thank all the blog subscribers, followers and anyone who has stopped by here ever. Sinfully Spicy has mostly been about north indian food,my effort is to make traditional indian dishes accessible to everyone.I am trying to include some fusion dishes in the blog with ingredients I did not grow up with but developed a taste for them over the years.Be ready to see more fusion as well as indian recipes in the coming months – all spiced up.
My 100th post coincided with Easter weekend and a block party in our complex on Thursay.I picked up the job of baking ,mainly because I m not too comfortable cooking savory stuff.I do not cook pork or beef so deciding on menu is difficult for me. And as such desserts are easier 
I wanted to bake something spring[y] in addition to please all the kids which would be main guests at the party.I googled and found recipes of fresh strawberry cupcakes at sources mentioned below. I am one of those person who is madly in love with pink color.I saw these recipes and decided on them instantly.They are just so so beautiful.I had a 2 boxes of strawberries I picked up from Costco which had to be used.These cupcakes were polished off in no time, I think the main attraction was the pink color of these cupcakes and the sour cream chocolate frosting.
I have used this recipe from Smitten Kitchen which was adapted to make these cupcakes by Lori Lange of Recipe Girl.I have not made any changes to the recipe coz I m not very confident adapting recipes of baked goods.On the taste side, I found these cupcakes really moist and buttery with a hint of fresh fruit.The batter is so so addictive, I would have eaten almost 1/2 cup of raw batter,it tastes like strawberry ice cream.They were not too sweet which is how I like them.To make these kid friendly,I compensated for the sweetness by increasing sugar in the frosting.Undoubtedly one of the best cupcakes I have eaten in a long time.And mind you, you can’t eat just one.This is now one of my favorite cupcake recipes.Deb of Smitten Kitten has indicated in her recipe to pop up the quantity of food color to bring out the real pink.So I added color just enough to get that baby pink look. I baked 4 batches but the recipe below is for a single batch.Thanks Deb & Lori for sharing.
Click for Printable Recipe
Ingredients
For the Strawberry Cupcakes [Makes about 18 cupcakes]
- 2 1/4 cups cake flour
- 1 1/2 cups white granulated sugar
- 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1.5 sticks unsalted butter[ at room temperature]
- 3/4 cup pureed strawberries [frozen/fresh]
- 4 large egg whites
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1-2 drops of red/pink food color depending on how pink you want your cupcakes
- 2.5 cups confectioners sugar
- 1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2-3 tbsp of milk or as required to thin out the frosting.
- Preheat oven to 350 F.Line your cupcakes pan with cases or grease thoroughly.
- I like to strain out the pureed strawberries through a sieve once.You can skip this step if you do not want to.
- In a medium bowl sift flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat the softened butter with the pureed strawberry until mixed.
- Add the flour mix to the butter mix and blend until fluffy.The batter will be thick
- In another bowl,beat egg whites, milk, vanilla extract and food color until light and fluffy.
- Fold in the whisked egg whites into the batter, divided.Keep mixing gently until whole of it is incorporated.D
- Using your cookie/ice-cream scoop, fill the cupcake pan about 3/4 full.
- Bake 18 – 22 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.Mine took 20 minutes.
- Transfer the cupcakes to the rack for cooling.Let cool completely before frosting [recipe below]
