A couple of weeks ago, I decided to try making Sprinkles’ strawberry cupcakes, with the accompanying strawberry frosting. I’ve only been to Sprinkles a couple of times, and that was a couple of years ago at least. From what I remember, their cupcakes were quite good, although a bit pricey ($3.25 each at the time). So why not try recreating them at home, for a fraction of the cost?
I followed the recipe on the website as-is, and then I spooned the batter into the cupcake liners. See how some of them are all wrinkly? That seems to happen a lot when I use the Wilton baking cups. (I was trying to use up some leftover Wilton ones, that’s why I used them this time.) But it doesn’t seem to happen with the Reynolds ones. Odd, since Wilton stuff is usually pretty good quality. I couldn’t really find anyone else with the same complaint after doing some searches online, though. Anyway, moving on with the baking…
After 22 minutes in the oven, they were done, as the recipe promised. They were looking pretty good so far. You can’t really see it in the picture, but they had a slight pink hue.
Then I made the strawberry frosting, again according to the recipe. I love that nice pink color and the fact that it’s completely natural. Well, if you count the butter and powdered sugar as natural.
Even after applying a pretty generous layer of frosting on each cupcake, I still had quite a bit of frosting left over. After actually making the frosting at home and seeing what goes into it, I shudder at the thought of eating all that frosting they put on the cupcakes you buy at Sprinkles. That’s the horrifying thing about baking, you realize how bad these delicious desserts actually are.
I stared at the cupcakes and thought they were pretty plain-looking, although they did have a nice festive pink color. Since I don’t have Candace Nelson’s fancy little Sprinkles dots, I thought I’d try putting little strawberry slices on top instead. To give it that homemade, fresh touch that you can’t get at Sprinkles.
OK, so maybe they were a tad big.
I thought they looked pretty good for cupcakes made by an amateur.
I tried eating one. It was kind of dense. Not really like the cupcakes you’d get at Sprinkles, at least from what I remember. But the recipe said they’d taste just like the ones from the store! So I read the comments. There seemed to be consensus that
- there should be 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda added to the batter, and
- the milk should be replaced with buttermilk.
I should’ve read the comments beforehand! Undoubtedly, those two changes would have made quite a difference. Another problem I was having was that the moisture from the strawberry slices made the cupcakes a bit sticky. Darn me and my fresh garnishes.
So the following week, I decided I’d try again, with the recommended changes, and no fresh fruit on top this time. I also thought I’d try mango instead of strawberry, just to mix things up. I followed the same recipe, just with an additional 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/4 cup of buttermilk instead of 1/4 cup of milk, and mango puree instead of strawberry puree.
You can already tell the batter is much yellower, as expected.
I baked them for the same 22 minutes. They looked kind of like corn muffins to me. But I’m sure it was just the mango turning it yellowish.
When I made the strawberry frosting, I wound up with far too much, so this time, I halved the recipe, and I replaced the strawberry puree with mango puree. Yellow just isn’t as sexy as pink, so these weren’t as visually appealing.
For some reason, the mango frosting was less stiff than the strawberry frosting. I don’t know if it’s because of the difference in fruit, or because it was hotter that day, or what.
I tried one of these. I could hardly taste the mango. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because the strawberry can stand up better than mango can to the butter, sugar, and other ingredients. The cupcakes seemed lighter and less dense, though, which was good.
If I had been a good scientist, I would have only changed one variable, instead of changing the batter recipe and the fruit at the same time. So I’ll have to do another experiment soon, with the improved batter recipe but with strawberry again. Or I could try cooking the mango puree a bit to make it more concentrated, and maybe that will give the cupcake and frosting a more intense mango flavor. So many possibilities…