strawberry lemon cupcakes.

i honestly had never heard of cupcakes in a jar before -- they are so flipping cute. my mom's good friend, merry introduced me to this funky way to do dessert. she's pretty awesome like that. her endeavors include a smores one, which i'm sure is to die for, pina colada, and turtles. she may have more but i just haven't heard about them yet! anyway, when my mom told me about merry's cupcake in a jar, i was intrigued. after sneaking a peek of merry's creations on her facebook page (thanks, mom!) i began envisioning flavor combos in my head. i know for sure i want to try some type of pumpkin and spice cake but i figured that should be for later in the fall. so i tried to figured out something summer-y and one thing that came to mind was strawberry lemonade. so i began searching for inspiration for my strawberry lemonade cupcakes and i remembered these babies. i had wanted to make these earlier this year, and never got around to it. so i thought maybe i should turn this "crunkcake" into a cupcake in jar. i did some more research and found another blogger who had made these for a bachelorette party. she commented that the lemon cupcakes turned out "lopsided" and if she made these again, she would probably use a different lemon cake recipe. i decided to find a different recipe and ended up using one i found on your home based mom's blog. the cupcakes were definitely yummy and i would make them again!

i was a little intimidated by the frosting recipe. i had never made meringue frosting before but i am happy to say that it worked great! i loved the hint of malibu (coconut) flavor and thought it was perfect with the lemon and strawberry flavors. i would definitely recommend it!

i am going to have to practice my technique for assembling the cupcakes in jar. i wasn't super please with how they "looked" even though i thought they were delicious. oh well, just means more baking and i'm okay with that =)


strawberry lemon cupcakes + printable version

lemon cupcakes:

1 package lemon cake mix 1 C sour cream
3/4 C water
3/4 C oil 4 eggs
1 small package lemon instant pudding

mix together dry ingredients in large bowl (preferably something like your kitchen aid mixer). add wet ingredients. mix on medium speed for about two minutes. it is a pretty thick mixture.

pour batter into prepared cupcake tins, either with paper liners or nonstick spray. i ended up with 24 full cupcakes.

bake them at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. don't over bake.

** the original recipe said that the cupcakes will fall after they come out of the oven. this is normal and you just need to fill up the indentation with more frosting. i definitely had this happen but i wasn't to worried since i knew they were going into the jars.

malibu italian meringue buttercream:

2 egg whites, room temperature
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
12 tbsp (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened
1-2 tablespoons malibu caribbean rum, coconut flavor, to taste

beat the egg whites in the bowl of your mixer with the whisk attachment until frothy, then add the cream of tartar and beat just before stiff peaks form.

while that is going on, stir together the sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over moderately high heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. when syrup reaches a boil, put your candy thermometer into it and continue boiling, without stirring, until it reaches about 238-242 degrees fahrenheit.

immediately remove from heat and with your mixer on, slowly pour the hot syrup in a thin stream into the egg whites, beating constantly at high speed and making sure to not pour directly on the side of the bowl. beat meringue until the bowl is cool to the touch.

change out your whisk for your paddle attachment and scrapes down the sides of the bowl. on medium speed, gradually add butter about two pieces at a time, beating well after each addition until incorporated. continue beating until buttercream is smooth. **don't worry if your mixture may look curdled before all butter is added - it will come back together before beating is finished. if that doesn’t work, try chilling it a bit in case your meringue was too hot.

finally, add the malibu and mix thoroughly.

strawberry puree:

5 ounces frozen strawberries, thawed - i ended up using fresh 1 teaspoons sugar, more or less (to taste) - i probably ended up using more, big surprise 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, more or less (to taste)
in a blender, pulse strawberries a few times until pureed. stir in the sugar and lemon juice until it taste like you want it to.

sliced strawberries

i only had a few strawberries and i just cut them into slices so only a few of the jars ended up with layers of strawberries.

to assemble: **i used 8 oz jelly jars (i found mine at walmart in the canning section)

because i had never made these before, i definitely experimented a little with how to put these together. my first couple jars, i sliced a cupcake into thirds, horizontally, and put the bottom piece into the bottom of the jar. i then layered sliced strawberries, frosting, another layer of cupcake, some more strawberries and frosting, finishing up with a swirl of frosting (i just used a ziploc bag) and i drizzled strawberry puree on top. i also tried not slicing the cupcake and just used two cupcakes as the layers. another variation was to drizzle strawberry puree in the first layer to soak into the cupcake layer.

but you can really do it however you want!

i was not super happy with how the end product looked from the side view. i thought they ended up being a little too messy so next time i will have to figure out a better way to add the frosting without smearing the glass. i'll let you know what i figure out!