Strawberry Lemon Vodka Cupcakes

I think I had my first fail.

A couple weeks before this Valentine's Day, a holiday we don't normally do anything for but have dinner just us, my husband and I both mentioned we wanted to do something more. I enlisted a friend to help make decorations, I borrowed a friend's Le Creuset so I could make Julia Child's boeuf bourguignon, and I set out to find the perfect dessert. I thought I had found it when I saw Strawberry Vodka Lemon Cupcakes on the Baking Bites Blog.

The morning of the holiday, 2 hours before we were to be at a reservations only brunch, I started the cupcakes. I made the recipe just as directed and, while mixing in the flour and milk, I noticed it was becoming almost taffy-like. After the third alternating mixture, the batter started wrapping itself around the mixers and got worse the more I tried to mix. With that consistency, I did not believe it would make anything worth eating. I called in my husband in for a "baking consult". He suggested that I either mixed too much or packed the flour too tightly so the mix was too dry.

Since I really wanted to have cupcakes for my guests (and lets face it, for me), I decided to give it a second go. I made sure to not pack the flour tightly and mixed each alteration much less than I did previously. The same thing happened, but not quite to the extent of the first batch. I was still worried it would not make anything worth eating, but as I had 45 minutes to shower, dress and get to brunch, I decided to bake them and see what happened. They came out looking like a dense, doughy muffin or biscuit. They tasted good, but were not light and fluffy or cake-like; they were kind of like the consistency of a buttermilk biscuit.

I was at a loss. I wanted a light, fluffy, cake-like cupcake that I could put a pink whipped cream frosting and chocolate hearts on. I wanted something that felt more like Valentine's Day, and these sort-of-muffin things were not it. When we got back from brunch, I scoured the net for an easy recipe, since I had to make it between dinner preparations. It also had to fit the ingredients I had on hand. I still had some strawberries and just enough flour and sugar for another try. I used up all the zest, lemon juice and vodka in the first two batches so I had to make do without those. But, there was still hope.

I found an Easy Strawberry Cupcake recipe that claimed to be "delicious and loved by everyone". They proved to be all that. The batter for those went just like I expected, though I made a few changes: I mashed the strawberries in a bowl with a potato masher and substituted some of the vanilla extract with lemon extract. I made a whipped cream frosting with red food coloring to turn it pink and just a touch of lemon juice for flavor. My husband melted down the rest of the dark baking chocolate we had and made chocolate hearts to top them with. They were beautiful, delicious, and a great end to my cupcakes trials of the day.

Unfortunately, with all the problems and other cooking going on, I neglected to take pictures of the whole process, except the taffy-like dough (above). However, we did get some good ones of the finished product, and even a rare picture of me posing with my baking.

I was glad to have some cupcakes to serve our guests, but I really wanted to know why the first recipe didn't work. Did I somehow mess up the recipe twice, was there a typo in the recipe, or was that just how they were supposed to turn out? I went to the blog and read some of the comments. I found that others thought the recipe turned out more like muffins as well. So, maybe it wasn't my fault they turned out that way after all.

Though early on I felt like I was having my first failure, in the end, I don't think I can call it a total failure. I had to make three different batches of cupcake mix to get one to turn out like cupcakes, but the second batch I mixed made for nice muffins and the third was great for dessert. I ran out of vodka and lemon zest. However, I didn't need the vodka to make a good dessert, and I had lemon extract to substitute for the zest. Finally, I feel like I learned a little about what consistency and ingredients, including how much of each, makes different kinds of baked goods. This whole baking adventure as I like to call it started as a way to get me off the couch, but has turned into so much more, and learning is part of that.

Happy Valentine's!