Pretty in Pink

   For the past few years I have been attending the Blossom Benefit that my friend Kim started.  It is basically a night for women to get together, drink some wine and give back to the community.  What started out as less than 10 people in her dining room has turned into one of our community's "hot ticket" raising thousands for women and children. 

   Last year Kim asked me if I would be willing to make some mini cupcakes for one of the wine pairings.  I made chocolate/chocolate buttercream and I thought they turned out pretty yummy.  Kim must of agreed because she asked me to make more cupcakes this year.  When I asked her what she wanted, figuring they wouldn't want chocolate again, she said, "pink and white".

   Okay so I took that to mean "fruity" and what's starting to show up in stores lately? Strawberries.

I did a little googling and found the recipe for Sprinkles Strawberry Cupcakes.  We don't have a Sprinkles bakery up here so I've never had one, but it looked simple enough so I gave it a try.  While the cupcake part was okay, the frosting is a WHOLE other story.  Light, fresh and just enough strawberry fruitiness. 

Springtime perfection.

Strawberry Buttercream (not exact Sprinkles recipe, but you get the gist)
1/2 C butter at room temp
2 1/2  C powder sugar (approximately, I just used what was left in the pantry)
1 t vanilla
1/4 cup fresh strawberry puree' (again approximate, it was a good two glugs of puree out of the blender)
Combine and once mixed, turn up mixer to medium high and beat for a few minutes to fluff it up
makes enough to frost 4 dozen mini cupcakes (give or take a few)
Enjoy
:0)