High Altitude White Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes
Soft vanilla cupcakes and fluffy strawberry buttercream, dipped in white chocolate and sprinkled with crushed freeze dried strawberries.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1 recipe Vanilla Cupcakes
Buttercream
- 1 ¼ cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
- ½ tbsp meringue powder, optional
- 2 tbsp finely crushed freeze dried strawberries
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
White Chocolate
- 12 oz white chocolate chips
- 1 tbsp vegetable shortening
- "bright white" gel food coloring, optional
- freeze dried strawberries, for decorating
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Make the vanilla cupcakes as instructed, then let cool completely. If preferred, this recipe for strawberry cupcakes would also work well with the white chocolate.
- Use a cupcake corer to remove a small portion from the center of each cupcake.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for one minute until smooth.
- With the mixer on low speed, add the powdered sugar by spoonfuls, the crushed freeze dried strawberries, meringue powder and vanilla.
- Increase the speed to medium and beat for 4-5 minutes, stopping to scrape the bowl down several times, until very light and fluffy.
- Fit a disposable 16-inch piping bag with tip 1M, and fill half full with the buttercream.
- Pipe the buttercream into the centers of the cupcakes, then pipe a swirl on top of the cupcakes.
- Freeze the frosted cupcakes for 20 minutes, before dipping in the white chocolate. If you don't freeze them first, the buttercream will fall off the cupcakes when you dip them.
White Chocolate
- While the cupcakes are freezing, melt the white chocolate. In a microwaveable bowl or glass measuring cup, combine the white chocolate chips and the shortening.
- Microwave for 2-3 minutes at 50% power, stirring until smooth.
- If desired, add a few drops of "bright white" gel food coloring to offset the yellow tint of the white chocolate.
- Let the white chocolate cool at room temperature until the cupcakes are ready to come out of the freezer.
- Dip the chilled cupcakes into the white chocolate. I prefer to only dip them halfway down, so that some of the pink buttercream is showing. Before the white chocolate hardens, sprinkle the cupcakes with freeze dried strawberries.
Notes
Store leftover cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
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