On Friday I bought some Strawberry Philly (Philadelphia cream cheese) to try and because sales of it support Breast Cancer research…I came up with the idea to make pink velvet cupcakes with the Strawberry Philly (in place of the cream cheese) icing.
- 60g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 150g caster sugar
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 30g Strawberry Nessquick
- 2 tbsp pink food colouring
- 150g plain flour
- 140ml buttermilk
- 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 4 1/2 tsp white wine vinegar
- 40g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 100g Strawberry Philly cream cheese
- 250g pure icing sugar, sifted
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan forced) and line the muffin tin with muffin cases
- Add the butter and sugar to an electric mixer (or using a handheld mixer) and cream together for 7 minutes, or until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg and mix for 1 minute
- Mix the *Strawberry Nessquick and food colouring together in a separate bowl to make a paste, then add it to the mixer and mix until incorporated. Add the flour and buttermilk and mix for 2 minutes. Then add the baking powder and white wine vinegar and mix for a further 2 minutes.
- Divide evenly between the muffin cases. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Remove the baked cupcakes from the oven and immediately transfer to a wire wrack to cool completely.
- Cream the butter and Strawberry Philly cream cheese together in the mixer for 2 minutes.
- Add the icing sugar and beat for about 2 minutes until smooth.
- Once the cupcakes are completely cool, spread the icing over the top of each one with a knife.
- Strawberry Philly cream cheese is only available during October (for breast cancer awareness month), so you could use regular cream cheese with strawberry flavouring, if you'd like.
- Don't be afraid to use the white wine vinegar, it reacts with the baking powder and makes the batter light and fluffy. You won't even know it's there, once the cupcakes are baked.
- I found that the Strawberry Philly is not as firm as regular cream cheese, so is not really suitable to be piped (learned the hard way with that one!)
- The Strawberry Nessquick was meant to substitute the cocoa in the Red velvet recipe, but it didn't really add a strawberry flavour. You could use white drinking chocolate (if you can find some)
- To jazz them up add some cute heart sprinkles or wafer hearts (as I have used)
Loved the look of the pink cupcake batter! I used Queen Pink natural colour.
Fun Fact: Cochineal comes from the Cochineal insect (sorry if this grosses you out!), it has and sometimes is still used in cosmetics too!
The most perfect uniform cupcakes, that I’ve ever baked!…too bad I left them in the oven a little too long!
The Strawberry Philly is really yummy! It almost has this strawberry ‘yoghurt’ taste to it.
I also have some of the mini tubs, I think I might use some on some croissants. 50c from each tub or mini tubs of Strawberry Philly goes to the NBCF and Cancer research.
You could bake these Pink velvet cupcakes for your own pink ribbon breakfast, girls night in or just to enjoy at home! Raising money for Breast Cancer research is a good reason to bake some yummy (and girly) cupcakes!
XO XO
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