Gluten Free Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting really are the best on the planet!
Today is my youngest daughter’s 12th birthday. It’s hard to believe that she is that old already because it seems like yesterday I was fighting the airlines trying to get my milk home from one of my many, many trips to Chicago. It seems like yesterday that she ate an entire package of Ex-Lax (the chocolate variety) and when I asked her why she did so, she looked me dead in the face and told me that I should have hidden it from her. It seems like just yesterday I sat and cried, worried that Poison Control would turn me into Children’s Services for the third call because she had drank my candle oil, yet again. It seems like just yesterday that she looked up at me and told me she wanted to live with me forever and ever …sniffle.
When did this happen? Where have I been? Have I been present enough? Does she still want to live with me forever and ever? Man, this is getting hard to write.
I have three beautiful daughters, one brunette, one blonde and one this one …my little ginger baby. All were born on a Friday and all have brought so much joy to my life that it’s hard not to just sit here and cry. Cry for all of those times they looked at me like I was the only person in the world and those times when they looked back at me because they were moving ahead without me.
Is it too much to ask that they never grow up? Is it too much to ask that I be the only person in their world, heck their entire universe? Is that too much?
My baby has been learning how to take food photography and this post (and the last few, actually) is filled with her pics. She styled them, she shot them and I am one proud Momma right here! She took so many beautiful shots today that this post took literally four hours to put together because we couldn’t decide which to post due to the simple fact that they were all so beautiful and we had to narrow it down from almost 30 shots! 30! She kept tweaking and adjusting and as I watched her I realized that she is so much like me it’s almost scary. Poor kid. I laugh because she has no idea what I go through with my compulsive traits and I know that one day she is going to call me up and ask me why she’s the same way. Ahhhh, good ‘ol genetics, baby!
Do you think she’ll think it’s as funny as I do? I doubt it, seriously doubt it …but there’s nothing she can do about it, is there?
We had been planning this day for months, and she was certain that she didn’t want a birthday cake, she wanted me to make her some strawberry cupcakes and so a few weeks ago I pulled out the old cookbooks. I have this very old cookbook from my church that was once held together with a plastic binder that had broken many years ago, so I sat on the stairs and went through the pages because I remember an old recipe for a strawberry cake and I finally found it. Since I like to give credit for any recipe I make, I’d like to say thanks to Mrs. Johnson for this recipe. Although the recipe was originally for a poke cake, I scoured the internet and found another recipe similar to this one that had Strawberry Jell-O in it, so I thought I would try adding it to the batter since there’s always room for Jell-O. My kid definitely didn’t want a poke cake, but I’ll admit, I tried to talk her into it because I haven’t made a gluten free one yet, but just give me time.
You could say that I took the original recipe and just made changes to it, but really all I did was add a box of Strawberry Jell-O to it instead of mixing it and poking holes and pouring it in, so thanks again Mrs. Johnson, wherever you may be.
For the icing, I made a classic cream cheese frosting and just added some of my simple strawberry syrup to it, and it came out so dang good that I don’t know why I haven’t used my syrup for other things, like cakes or frosting or like a strawberry glaze of some kind. Oh my goodness am I getting ideas here. Someone send help…
How serendipitous is this: I had just made the syrup for tea and had it already made. I call that lucky, but if you do not have any, you could use some strawberries if you wanted, I am sure they would be just as delicious but I recommend sprinkling some sugar on them first and then adjusting the amount of sugar you add to the frosting. Someone do that and let me know how it goes, k? Thanks.
On to the recipe, enjoy and if you like, leave a comment for my Ginger Baby – I’m sure it would make her day!
- 2 c granulated sugar
- 1 (3 oz) package of Strawberry Jell-O
- 2 sticks of butter (melted)
- 4 eggs, separated
- 2¾ c gluten free flour
- 2½ tsp baking powder
- 1 c whole milk
- 1 tbs vanilla extract
- 1 stick of butter (room temperature)
- 2½ tbs granulated sugar
- 1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese (room temperature)
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 3½ c powdered sugar
- 6 tbs strawberry simple syrup
- In a stand mixer, combine flour, baking powder, cake flour and dry Jell-O mix
- Add the melted butter and mix
- Add the milk and vanilla and mix
- Add the 4 egg yolks and mix until combined
- Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks are formed and fold gently into the
- cupcake batter
- Bake at 350° for 30 to 35 minutes until a tooth pick comes out clean when
- inserted into the center
- Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting
- In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until smooth with paddle
- attachment
- Add room temperature cream cheese and beat until smooth again
- Add powdered sugar at the rate of about ½ c at a time and mix until fluffy
- Add vanilla and strawberry syrup and mix until fluffy and beautiful
- Frost those cupcakes!
Pretty! This has been an extremely wonderful article.
Thank you for providing these details.
These look amazing! thanks for sharing with Waste Not Want Not Wednesday!
You are welcome! I’ve been on a cupcake kick and I can’t stop!
Hello. I would love to make these. I don’t see any notes regarding the gluten free cake flour mix you used or made. Can you let us know? Thanks
Hi, there is something amiss with my recipe plugin – so sorry – but the link to the flours is: http://lynnem2.sg-host.com/gluten-free-flour-blends/
Thanks for the comment, I may not have noticed that for a while 🙂
No worries. Awesome. Thanks so much!
I haven’t updated the flour page yet – but to make cake flour:
Directions:
Measure out the amount needed for your recipe. …
For every 1 cup of flour remove 2 Tbsp of flour.
Now add 2 Tbsp of Cornstarch for every 1 cup of flour. …
Sift 5-6 times and it’s ready-to-use cake flour.
Made these cupcakes for the 4th of July they were a hit people loved them. I made them with all cake flour not gluten flour and cut the sugar down to 11/2 cups keeping in mind the jello has sugar in the package and they were the perfect sweetness. Made them as mini cupcakes only took 10 min to bake just a little over baked next time only 8 or 9 min..Otherwise a great strawberry cake recipie great that I found this Thanks for sharing the recipie!
All of the cupcakes I look at just have a strawberry on top. Its hard to find good food, while being gluten free. I have celiac disease, and it is so hard to look at everybody else eating cookies, brownies, and all the good stuff.