Joy of Cooking - Strawberry cupcake experiment
This is what happens when you have left over strawberries, and run across a box of strawberry cake mix for $0.99! The mix is almost vegan, just a tiny bit of whey, and these are for V, so I was willing to overlook it. I was also willing to overlook the oodles of bad ingredients, fake strawberry stuff, more bad ingredients. But the picture was too enticing! Things just seemed to fall together nicely.
I should note that I adore strawberries, and willingly spend a pretty penny at the amazing vegan bakery up the way to make me strawberry birthday cake. Also, baking is not my forte...
So, box in hand, it was time to sub out the ingredients! The box called for:
1 Cup water
1/3 cup oil
3 eggs
I dutifully chopped up more tiny bits of strawberries, and gathered...
1/3 cup strawberry bits
1/3 cup refined coconut oil
4? 3? Tbsp flax + 12 Tbsp of water
~3/4 Cup coconut milk Cmostly water, I'd used the separated fluffy stuff on top for the earlier experimental pie)
generous splash of rose water
I got the tins from my mother, not certain how old they are, but people sell them online as 'vintage' - they are lightweight aluminum and I think this is the first time I've used them in over 20 years. Anyway, the cupcakes? They aren't half bad. Looking back on it, I would have been better off making this from scratch, as opposed to trying to make the best of something that didn't have great ingredients to work with. It doesn't taste like strawberries, sadly, it tastes like sweet something, with rosewater and hints of coconut. A bit on the moist side, once again I went a bit heavy on the fluids here. Immediately after eating one I sampled last night's frosting experiment - yeah NOOOO. I might try to make something else, but perhaps testing out with fewer ingredients so less potential waste.
I am disappointed that after cutting up so many strawberries into so many tiny pieces, I'm not actually tasting any strawberries, or strawberry flavor. The lesson here is that cashew butter and whatever the hell is in the cake mix once again overpowers the delicate flavors of my favorite fruit. I'm glad I ate at least some of them raw while making all of this... I actually saved some back, to top the cupcakes with. I might just go with that, for now.
On the bright side, the flax worked better than expected, and I believe better than my usual egg replacement stuff.