The Home Cook: White Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

Author's Note: I tried to type the frosting recipe from memory and I shouldn't have. Not with this memory anyway. Please note that the recipe has been updated.

Kitsch can be fun. Seriously. It can be. Collecting retro kitchen accessories or vintage garments is currently the height of cool. Red plastic flour and sugar containers with the Art-deco lettering or that Jackie O pill box hat, each one is coveted by that inner love of all things dipped in nostalgia.

But what about retro recipes? We've all got them, those recipes that we remember from our childhood. Be it fried bologna smiley faces, spam pizza burgers or straight up beans n' weenies. They are those recipes that you fondly recall and are sooo unbelievably tacky, hideous or just plain horrific that as a grown man/woman you cringe just thinking of what you consumed with glee during those formative elementary school years; and yet...and yet, perhaps once a year you admit that you still find them ooh so tasty and the craving starts. Be it the memory of those recipes from your mother's kitchen or maybe just the right sort of sun drenched afternoon gets those juices flowing.

My family is full of those sorts of recipes, things that make my husband go just a bit green thinking about them. Like most people I can, thankfully, get by making them once every year or two. But I think the pinnacle of the tacky recipes holed away in my collection is for Kool-aid frosting. Yup, frosting...flavored with Kool-aid. It was a constant in our world. Once a year on Valentine's Day, we would invariably find a Tupperware full of the pink topped cupcakes sitting on the counter, begging to be paired with a tall glass of milk.

As far as frostings go, this one is not too user friendly. A dense thick blend, it doesn't lend itself to any sort of fancy icing tricks. In fact getting it on the cupcakes on not all over yourself, your counters and your dog is paramount to a major coup. Or perhaps that is my own inability to master the fine art of icing anything. I am not a fancy cook and any sort of icing mastery just seems a bit out of reach of this girl's skills. But the flavor of the frosting is something I really like. It's tart and tangy from the kool-aid and lemon juice, but the tartness is tempered by the heaps of powdered sugar. In fact, the end result flavors can really range since any flavor of koolaid you can tolerate can be used...have a deep and unfading passion for Boo-berry? Go for it, though blue icing is kind of squicky, even for me. I prefer the realistic berry flavors since they work with the lemon juice best...strawberry, black cherry, (the now defunct) red raspberry are all very good.

In an attempt to do something a bit out of the ordinary, and to make a post about tacky frosting worth it I made the cupcake batter from scratch. Not overly challenging, but I did try a new recipe...not one that I'm overly pleased with. While the cupcakes baked up sweeter and lighter than say a box mix, the consistency was a bit dry. Though I did over bake them a tad, so that may have more to do with it than the recipe.

Kool-aid Icing

1/3 cup Shortening or butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon Lemon Juice

1 level teaspoon Kool-aid, Strawberry

3 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar, sifted

1/4 cup Milk

Combine shortening, salt, lemon juice, Kool-aid and 1 cup of sugar. Add milk and remaining sugar alternately; mix until smooth and creamy. Add more milk or sugar to reach desired consistency.

White Butter Cake

from JoyofBaking.com

1 3/4 cups sifted Cake Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated White Sugar, divided
2 large Eggs, separated
1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
1/2 cup Milk
1/8 teaspoon Cream of Tartar

While eggs are still cold separate the eggs, placing the yolks in one bowl and the whites in another bowl. Cover the two bowls with plastic wrap and allow the eggs to come to room temperature before using (about 30 minutes).

In a mixing bowl sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In bowl of electric mixer, beat the butter until soft (about 1-2 minutes). Add 3/4 cup (150 grams) of the sugar and beat until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined.

With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.

In a clean bowl of your electric mixer, with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. With a rubber spatula gently fold a little of the whites into the batter to lighten it, and then fold in the remaining whites until combined. Do not over mix the batter or it will deflate.

Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans and smooth the tops with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon or fill lined cupcake tins. Bake in the preheated oven for approximately *20 - 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Cool the cakes in their pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Place a wire rack on top of the cake pan and invert, lifting off the pan.

*For cupcakes: Bake for 13 minutes and check, they are done when they pass the toothpick test.