Honey Strawberry Cupcakes with Goat Cheese Frosting

I'm alive!! After a crazy summer of taking too many credits and not enough time for cupcake baking and a wonderful European adventure, I am back to a (relatively) normal school pace. Thank goodness. I'm finally back to my preferred schedule of being able to bake a lovely batch of cupcakes once a week and I couldn't be happier. I promise my posts will actually be weekly from now on. Anyways, cupcakes. This summer, my mom found the coolest little Instructable cupcake contest. First prize for recipes: A KITCHEN AID MIXER. Holy smokes. I have the biggest passion for Kitchen Aids. They are incredible mixers, not to mention super durable. My grandma's from the 1950s is still in commission! The bad news for yours truly: It's a tradition in my family to get a Kitchen Aid for a wedding present. The bad news isn't a free mixer from my wonderful relatives. As a mere senior in college, I still have a while until a glorious new kitchen aid graces its presence in my kitchen. This contest seemed like the perfect fix. I knew I had to make something a little kooky in order to catch voters' eyes. For months, I have wanted to incorporate goat cheese into a buttercream and I decided Honey Strawberry cupcakes would be the perfect base for the savory frosting. For the first time in the history of this blog, I don't have a picture of the people eating them since I was so focused on taking pictures of the actual cupcakes:( 

Ben and Me with Beer, Brauts, and pretzels in Munich. Not cupcake related but we are eating so it's close enough.

HONEY STRAWBERRY CAKE:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 T baking powder

1/4 t salt

1 stick room temperature butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

Splash of vanilla

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup milk

1 container of strawberries, diced

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. One at a time, add the eggs, vanilla, and honey. Slowly, alternating with the milk, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and blend until combined. Since the honey makes this cake a bit denser, be extra careful not to over mix, otherwise you'll have rock-like cupcakes. Carefully fold the strawberries into the batter. Divide the batter among lined cupcake tins and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

GOAT CHEESE BUTTER CREAM:

1 1/2 sticks room temperature butter

3 cups powdered sugar

8 oz. room temperature goat cheese, crumbled

A squeeze of honey

Beat the butter until fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar and honey and whip until thick. Crumble the goat cheese into the buttercream, being careful to make sure the goat cheese is fully incorporated into the frosting. Spoon or pipe the buttercream onto completely cooled cupcakes. 

HONEY BALSAMIC REDUCTION:

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup honey

In a small pan (I used a pan over a pot to make sure the heating of the balsamic was uniform) bring the balsamic vinegar to a boil. Stir in the honey and turn the burner down to let the balsamic simmer. Let the vinegar simmer for about 10ish minutes until it's thick and syrupy. This is prone to burning (I know from experience) so just keep an eye on it. Let the reduction cool in the fridge and once completely cool, drizzle on top on the goat cheese buttercream frosted cupcakes!

In the end, I decided not to submit my recipe. For the first time in my life, I didn't enjoy making cupcakes. I was too wrapped up in the competition to win the glorious kitchen aid that I almost dreaded each step that went into this recipe. Not to be too metaphysical/spiritual/what have you, but I took it as a sign to not enter the contest. If competing took away the fun and relaxation baking usually brings me, the brand new mixer just wasn't worth it. Maybe I'll be able to enter my cupcakes in other competitions in the future, but until then, baking cupcakes is just going to be for my own enjoyment (and the enjoyment of the people eating them!)

As my mom always told me, follow your gut. It is usually right. Happy Fall, Friends!

xoxo,

KG

PS. I put the link to the instructables contest in the intro! I urge you to take a gander at some of the cupcakes. They are absolutely beautiful!