Red White and Blueberry Cupcakes

Red White and Blueberry Cupcakes 

Baking cupcakes is something I enjoy doing.  I have no formal training, unless you count that Home Ec class I took in high-school, or was it Jr. High?   I can't walk into the kitchen and whip up cupcakes without a recipe.  As much as my man thinks I should be on Cupcake Wars , I couldn't do it.  I can and I do tweak cupcake recipes and when I find a cupcake that sounds delicious at a bakery I can't get to, I can combine recipes to recreate it. But I can't bake from scratch with no recipe. 

This is just what I did with The White Rabbit Bakery July seasonal flavor, Red, White and Blueberry. Their cupcake is a vanilla cake with blueberries baked into the batter. Topped with vanilla buttercream and strawberry compote. 

I tweaked their seasonal flavor a little.  I made vanilla cake mix and loaded it with blueberries.  I like A LOT of berries in my cake batter, I always add more than what the recipes call for.  I like people to get berries in every bite and it makes the cupcakes healthy right ;) 

While the cupcakes cooled I made the strawberry compote.  White Rabbit Bakery 's description sounds like the strawberry compote is mixed into the buttercream frosting. I used the compote as a filling.  So each bite of the cupcake you got blueberries and strawberries.  I then topped the cupcakes with vanilla buttercream.  

Besides enjoying baking and eating the cupcakes, I love the reaction I get from my friends when I tell them about the cupcakes I baked.  They always ask me to bring them into work.  The day I had made these red, white and blueberry cupcakes my friend came by the house for a visit.  I described the cupcakes and asked her if she wanted one and she immediately said, YES please! 

Every time I bring cupcakes to work that I baked my co-workers tell me I need to sell them.  I even had a friend ask me out of the blue one day, "Do you think you would enjoy baking every day?" When I asked her why she wouldn't elaborate but I could tell from the look on her face there was more to her question than she was letting on. 

I don't think I'd enjoy baking every thing, but I would enjoy baking cupcakes.  Maybe when I'm done with my day job I'll open Fizzy Party's Cupcakes.  I'd be a home baker. I wouldn't want a brick and mortar shop. I'd offer weekly or maybe monthly flavors.  Probably weekly because there's so many flavors I want to bake.  I'd only offer cupcakes, no cakes. 

Yep, I've kind of put some thought into it.  The idea is in the back of my brain, just in case I ever decide to pursue it. 

If these cupcakes sounded good to you, check out last month's seasonal flavor from White Rabbit Bakery that I recreated.  Raspberry Lemonade. 

Strawberry Cream Taste Test Drive

Kimberley's Bakeshoppe Strawberry Cream

Last month I tried Kimberley's Bakeshoppe Red Velvet . I was disappointed but was told by those of you who read the post that the vanilla ones were good and I should give them a try. So while grocery shopping last weekend I saw the strawberry cream and decided to give Kimberley's Bakeshoppe one more try. 

The package says, "Golden moist vanilla cake filled with luscious strawberries and topped with a swirl of both creamy vanilla bean and strawberry frosting's".   

The cake was moist with a hint of vanilla flavor. The frosting in my opinion didn't have much of a flavor.  It was pretty plain. I was expecting more of a strawberry taste. If I was making these I would add strawberry flavoring to the frosting. 

The filling once again was very disappointing.  This to me is not a luscious filling as the package suggests.  Where's the strawberry's?  The filling, what little there was,  tasted like strawberry jam. When I make cupcake's with filling it oozes out of the cupcakes. You know it's there. 

A package of 4 cupcakes at my local store here in Oregon is $4.99.  In my opinion, skip past these cupcakes and buy yourself a box mix.