And now it's summer...

So I've been really bad about posting lately, mainly b/c the last dinner I made was boeuf bourguignon.  The list of ingredients and the recipe is so long, that I have just been putting off posting...for 2 months apparently.  Along with the fear of posting the longest recipe ever, I've been working on opening my own bakery/cafe along with working so things have been a little hectic.  I did, however, find some cupcakes that I made for my friend's birthday that I forgot to post so it'll be a good transition entry :)

So summertime is here! and as a Southern girl, what is better in the summer than strawberries...and cake??? So my friend wanted strawberry shortcakes for her bday so I made her strawberry shortcake cupcakes.  These were double layered cupcakes with chantilly cream and strawberries.  Instead of biscuits, I used pound cake.  Recipe includes:

butter

sugar

eggs

AP flour

salt

vanilla

strawberries

sugar

heavy cream

sugar

vanilla

(Sorry for the lack of pictures)

The method used is the creaming method: butter, sugar, and vanilla in a mixer with a paddle attachment and whipped until creamy.  Then add the eggs one at a time until incorporated.  Finally add the flour.  Since I was making cupcakes, I used an ice cream scoop and divided the batter.  Once they were done, I allowed them to cool and cut them in half.  I also chopped up the strawberries and let them sit in some sugar.  

To make the chantilly, I simply added a whisk attachment to the mixer and whipped the cream, adding sugar and vanilla to taste until stiff peaks formed.  

Assembly of the cupcakes went like:

cake

chantilly

strawberries

cake

chantilly 

strawberries

I piped the chantilly cream so it would be cleaner and look nicer :)

Final products looked like this:

There ended up being close to 70 cupcakes and they were gone so fast the birthday girl didn't even get one! I'm glad we had some leftover that wouldn't fit in the trays so we got to eat some at home as "tasters."  I'm not gonna lie, they were pretty freaking awesome.  The chantilly cream had just enough sweetness to it that it wasn't overkill but was creamy enough to still balance out the sweetness of the strawberries.  The cake came out great and didn't dry out.  YUM!