Wild About Berries

I have had an interesting week. I could bore all of you with the details or I could get down to what you stopped by to find out about...the cupcakes. Shortly after posting last week's poll I began searching for a recipe for the Wild Berry cupcake. My internet searches were unsuccessful. Everything I was finding was more like a muffin and I am not asking if Muffins Could Be the Cure. Simple enough, I would just remove it as a choice and replace it with something more "easy." At least I thought that would be my plan. When I logged back on I had already gotten 2 votes. What this means for all of you out there is this...once a vote has been cast you cannot edit the poll. Just the motivation I needed to come up with my own version of a Wild Berry Cupcake. A bit overwhelmed at the idea, I decided to put my planning on hold. I held an offline poll, consisting of asking some people when I saw them what their ideas were. What I decided on was making 2 versions of this week's cupcake. One which my husband would describe as more traditional, the other he would describe as "your version." I was not sure if that was good or bad. There was one way to find out...get baking. Now this was a 2 day process. You see I was including 2 fillings this week, one for each version of my cupcakes and every component was from scratch, no boxed mix this week.  My anniversary present this year...letting me buy my supplies instead of getting me a gift...hey at least he remembered. so this is what I came up with:

Version One (the "traditional") A Wild Berry Cupcake (a basic from scratch white cake with wild berry puree added to the batter) with a Triple Berry Curd Filling, Swiss Butter Cream Icing and a Fresh Blueberry for garnish. My girls LOVE these, minus the blueberry on top. I made them as minis, they are eating them in one bite. Now you would think in my house that cupcakes are devoured in an instant. The truth is that my girls usually eat the icing and pretend to eat the cake. These...they are eating it all and asking for more. Talk about a happy mama, after all they are my toughest critics.

Version Two ("my" version): A Vanilla Bean Cupcake (from scratch...thank you whole foods store for carrying Whole vanilla beans) with a Wild Berry Mousse Filling and Fresh Strawberry Swiss Butter Cream. That's right people, I dropped those wonderful strawberries I found on sale (oh the raspberries  blueberries and black berries were on sale too) into the food processor, hit the button a few times and folded them into the heavenly Swiss Butter Cream. Now these are not a fan favorite in my house. Basically if my girls can see the the berries in anything they decide they don't like it right then.  There is no tasting involved, that is just the way it is. Trust me, I did enough taste testing of my own on this one. LOVE it, not as much as the Bailey's icing, but it is up there.
Despite some of the frustrations of this week's baking: how exactly do you fill a mini cupcake, why does my icing still look like soup after 20 minutes of beating it and why won't my meringue stiffen up, I completed the challenge. Better than that, I am proud of my creations. Tomorrow I will be delivering them to a party to celebrate the accomplishments of a Relay for Life event (don't worry, it is separate from last week's event, I am spreading the love...promise). If you want the recipes, either certain portions of them of the entire thing, let me know in the comments and I will pass them on to you. All you have to do is tell me where to send them. I enjoyed coming up with my own cupcake so much that this week you will decide which one of my favorite things will inspire my cupcake. I can't wait to find out what you all choose. I hope all of you have a wonderful week. Until next time...