Summer's Bounty

          Strawberries are one of my all-time favorite fruits. I love tossing some into my steel-cut oats in the morning! They are so good and so abundant, juicy, and sweet during summertime! Anyway, I teach a Sunday school class at my church and I told them I'd make them a treat for this Sunday. These Orange-Glazed Strawberry Cupcakes were perfect! Honestly, they were one of the most tender, moist cupcakes I've ever made that weren't made from a cake mix (yeah, you know we've all done it: used a mix and conveniently let everyone assume it was made from scratch, haha). They turned out great and the kids in class gobbled them up! My husband, Brandon, was mad at me that I didn't make more, but seriously, I wasn't going to double the recipe just so he could have a dozen to himself! Also, this is somewhat random but I had to share it! I recently learned that you can freeze egg whites. That may be common knowledge to some, but up until recently I would just put them in the fridge and try to find ways to use them before they went bad (I don't like scrambled egg whites). I found out that you can freeze egg whites in ice cube trays and once they are frozen, just pop them into a freezer-safe plastic bag and they last a REALLY long time (one egg white ice cube ends up being about one egg white, or two tablespoons). So, the next time you have a recipe that calls for egg whites, take out the amount you need and allow to thaw before using in your recipe (you can thaw them at room temperature or put them in a plastic bag and run a stream of cold water over them for five minutes or so). I used some previously frozen egg whites in this recipe and it worked great.

• 
  
• Ingredients:
• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 2/3 cup sugar 
• 1 large egg plus 1 large egg white 
• 8 tablespoons (1/2 cup) orange juice 
• 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh strawberries 
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• Directions:
•      1. Make cupcakes: Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. In a bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt.
•      2. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer on high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and egg white until well combined. With mixer on low, beat in half of flour mixture. Beat in 6 Tbsp. orange juice, then add remaining flour mixture and beat until combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gently fold in chopped strawberries.
•      3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each until almost full. Bake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 22 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack for at least 5 minutes.
•      4. Make glaze: In a small bowl, stir together confectioners' sugar and remaining 2 Tbsp. orange juice until smooth. If glaze is too thick, stir in additional juice, making sure to add only 1 tsp. at a time, until you reach desired consistency. Glaze should be loose enough to spread easily on cupcakes, but not so thin that it drips.
•      5. Remove cupcakes from pan and top evenly with glaze. Let cool completely on rack, about 1 hour. Garnish each cupcake with a strawberry half, if desired.
• Tips:

• Cream the butter, sugar, and eggs well until the batter becomes light and fluffy. But, once you add the dry ingredients, make sure to mix on low just until everything combines. Overmixing cake batter is pretty easy if you aren't paying attention and it results in a tough cake.
• Make sure you allow the cupcakes to cool completely before you top them with the glaze. I glazed one before it was completely cool and the glaze started to melt and run down the sides, so I had to wait a little longer.
• These cupcakes cannot sit out for too long at room temperature because they have fresh strawberries in them and they will spoil. Obviously serving them soon after they are made is the best option to preserve freshness, flavor, and texture; but if you need to serve them later, I would suggest freezing them. I froze them overnight and let them thaw at room temperature for a few hours and by the time my class started, they were just perfect. Try not to refrigerate them as refrigeration alters the texture of the cake (it dries it out).