These Russian nesting dolls or Matryoshka dolls (more story here) reminded me of my childhood. I have seen these dolls in my grandmother's home when I was a very young child. And when saw these dolls in Ebay suddenly the living room of my grandmother came to live in my head. I can even see the dress that I was wearing when I visited her home and playing with these pretty tiny dolls.
When saw the cup cake liner and cup cake top in a box at Homegoods; I immediately grabbed them and I knew I wanted to take pictures of both items together plus the cup cake that I intended to make.
This is my first cup cake attempt and I got the recipe from Martha Stewart. I never knew that strawberry can make a delicious cake. It is moist and; tastes like strawberry !
::Recipe::
Strawberry Cup Cake
~ 6 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
~ 1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
~ 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
~ 1/2 teaspoon salt
~ 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
~ 1 large egg
~ 1/2 cup milk
~ 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
~ pound strawberries. hulled and halved {I chopped 6 strawberries and mixed in the batter before baking}
1. Preheat oven to 350 deg. Buter a 10 - inch pie plate. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl.
2. Put butter and 1 cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low, mix in egg, milk and vanilla.
3. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture. Transfer batter to buttered pie plate. Arrange strawberries on top of batter, cut sides down and as close together as possible. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoon sugar over berries.
{Note; For above recipe I mix in chopped fresh strawberries last in batter. And therefore I do not sprinkle sugar on top.}
Bake cake for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake until cake is golden brown and firm to the touch, about 1 hour. Let cool pie plate on a wire rack. Cut into wedges. Cake can be stored at room temperature, loosely covered, up to 2 days.
{Note; arrange cup cake liner in a cup cake pan and pour 2/3 batter inside cup cake liner. I used only half recipe for about 8 cup cakes.}
Oh yes, the Cream Cheese Frosting
Mix with electric mixer; 1 cup low fat cream cheese, 1/4 butter, 1/2 tsp vanilla. 1/4 cup powder sugar and 2 drops red food coloring. Spoon all batter in to a plastic piping tube with any piping tips you like. I am using no. 12 round piping tips by Wilton.
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Good luck Everyone and thank you for stopping by !
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