Strawberry Chiffon Cupcakes

Out of all the different cupcakes and cakes I have made, the Strawberry Chiffon still stands out as the yummiest, in my opinion. The batter is light and fluffy - very similiar to the cakes you find at the Asian bakeries. The difference is the incorporation of a fresh strawberry puree into the batter. This is my first attempt at converting the chiffon cake into cupcakes.

I halved the recipe and came up with 14 standard-sized cupcakes. I baked the cupcakes for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

It is super important to fill the cupcakes all the way to the top.



Coming out of the oven, the cupcakes were pretty and puffed up. But beware that they don't look like this for long. A couple of minutes out of the oven and they will shrivel and collapse. That's ok though because you will be frosting these cupcakes with some sweetened whipped cream to hide the not-so-pretty tops. This is why you need to fill the batter to the top - or else your cupcake will shrink below the tops of the cups.



It's really difficult to decorate anything frosted with a whipped cream - only because colored decorations, like icing or confetti, will bleed into the frosting because of the high water content. I am forced to keep these cupcakes simple - either topped with fresh fruit or scattered with sugared almonds.



Pardon the excessive pink color - I went a little crazy with the red food coloring. I am still getting used to the color gels versus the liquid. I normally don't make this so pink.

While I still prefer the cake version, these cupcakes don't stray too far from the original. I prefer this recipe over the Strawberry Ricotta Cupcakes from a few weeks back. Definitely something worth making if you are looking for an alternative to the standard cupcake.