Strawberry and Blueberry Birthday Cupcakes

My daughter’s favorite colors are purple and pink and I knew for her birthday party I had to figure out a way to get these colors onto her birthday cupcakes. When we talk about real food, I often tell her that the bright colors she sees in the grocery store means that the food has chemicals in it. Colors from nature are what we should eat. I was pretty excited when I came across a photo on Pinterest of some cupcakes with a very purple frosting made from a surprise real food ingredient. I couldn’t use anything else from that recipe but it inspired me to try their method. Here are the results.

I adapted my grain-free birthday cake to a cupcake version and ended up making 4 batches of the batter for about 40 regular sized cupcakes. I was able to make the cupcakes and the icing in about 3 hours of alone time to focus. The key is having your entire list of ingredients ready in advance. I started with the batter for the cupcakes to get those into the oven quickly. While they were baking I prepared the frosting.

Grain-free Cupcakes

Ingredients

Makes 20 regular sized cupcakes

• 1 cup of coconut flour (where to buy coconut flour)
• 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt (where to buy salt)
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 12 pastured eggs
• 1 cup of honey (or other sweetener) (where to buy quality natural sweeteners)
• 2 tablespoons of vanilla
• 1 cup of unsalted butter, melted (coconut oil will work as well)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Blend all the wet ingredients together in a mixer or bowl with a whisk.
3. Blend all the dry ingredients together in a small bowl.
4. Using a whisk or mixer on a low setting, blend in all the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
5. Mix until well-blended and there are no more lumps – if you have a high speed blender then use that for very smooth results but this isn’t required.
6. Fill muffin liners or cake pan about 2/3 of the way full with batter.
7. Bake for about 25 minutes. Baking times can vary based on your oven – no worries about opening the oven to check them – when lightly brown and toothpick comes out clean you know it is done!
8. Cool on a wire rack.

    

Now for the frosting. There are two components – the frosting itself and our secret ingredient no-dye food coloring.

Maple Buttercream Frosting – Strawberry or Blueberry flavored

This batch made enough to ice all 40 cupcakes.

Ingredients

• 4 pastured egg yolks
• 1 cup maple syrup (Grade B) (where to buy quality natural sweeteners)
• 1 pound unsalted butter, cut up into tablespoon chunks
• 1 package freeze dried Strawberries, processed into a powder (where to buy)
• 1 package freeze dried Blueberries, processed into a powder (where to buy)

Directions

1. Process the strawberry and blueberry freeze dried fruit separately in a food processor until ground into a powder. Just wipe out the food processor in between batches to make sure it is very dry. Set aside in two separate bowls. Reserve about 1 tsp of each color into a separate bowl for decoration after frosting the cupcakes.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg yolks on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes; set aside.

3. In a small saucepan set over medium-high heat, bring the maple syrup to a boil, and cook until it registers 240 degrees on a candy thermometer, about 15 minutes. I placed a wooden spoon over the saucepan to prevent any boiling over. This needs to be watched carefully so make sure you aren’t distracted by another task (like taking muffins out of the oven so try to time this for when you load a new batch of cupcakes to the oven as they take 25 min). Remove from heat and with the mixer running, slowly pour syrup down the side of the bowl in a slow, steady stream, until completely incorporated into the beaten egg yolks, about 1 minute.

4. Continue beating until bowl is just slightly warm to the touch, 4 to 5 minutes more.

5. Add butter, one piece at a time, until thoroughly incorporated and the frosting is fluffy, about 4 minutes more.

6. Divide the frosting into two different bowls. Mix one batch with the red strawberry powder and one with the purple blueberry powder.

Frost the cupcakes with the two different flavors and then dust with the reserved powders for decoration.

These cupcakes will keep for a week in the fridge or longer in the freezer.  These get better over time so you can make them in advance of your event. When I gave some of the frosting to my daughter to sample she immediately said: ‘this is junk food because it has a bright color!’ I told her they were not junk food but made with strawberries and blueberries. I have never seen her so excited. She loved them and so did all of her friends!