Strawberry Cupcakes

In case you haven’t guessed, I am a huge follower of the locavore movement. A locavore is someone who tries to base their diet on food raised or grown within a certain distance of their home. This means eating what is in season. While I have explained the concept to Kayla on many occasions, her twelve year old brain refuses to accept the idea that strawberries should not be eaten year round, for every meal.
In an attempt to stave the strawberry crisis, I purchased some frozen strawberries (shame on me!) and tried to come up with a strawberry dessert for her.
I adapted the Cream Cake recipe from Sky High: Irresistible Three Layer Cakes and added strawberry puree in place of some of the cream it called for. Additionally, I replaced the rest of the cream with nonfat milk and whipped the egg whites to add the needed fluff to the batter. “Fluff” is my own non-culinary term for air.
I made a frosting out of cream cheese, strawberry puree, lemon juice and powdered sugar. The frosting was way too runny, and ended up more like a glaze. Despite the issues with consistency, the frosting tasted just like fresh strawberries and the whole house smelled like summertime.
Overall, they turned out pretty good for an improvisation.