Alex and Liam Share a Birthday Celebration: White Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes and Flourless Chocolate "Teacakes"

My friend Dorothy has two sons and I have been making their birthday cakes since they were born (you can see a list of their previous birthday baked goods at the very end of this post). But in the age of COVID-19, of course the boys couldn't have the parties with friends that they've enjoyed in the past. Instead, Dorothy organized a combined celebration for both boys, just for family, to be held outdoors at the retirement community where her parents and two of her aunts live. Because of COVID concerns, Dorothy and I decided that I should serve cupcakes instead of a large cake that would have to be cut and shared. Dorothy's younger son Liam specifically requested strawberry cupcakes, so I decided to make the White Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes from Sally's Baking Addiction. 

 

Our farmers market was selling small, flavorful strawberries into the beginning of October. I spoke to the market staff about them and the berries are grown indoors and produce a low yield. But they are just as delicious a peak-of-summer berries and I was delighted to be able to use high-quality fresh fruit for a strawberry dessert at the end of September.

The cupcakes include reduced strawberry puree, which you make by pureeing strawberries in the food processor and cooking them until their volume is reduced by half. Other than the addition of strawberry puree, the cupcakes are basically a white cake recipe. You cream together butter and sugar; add egg whites; mix in sour cream and vanilla; add the dry ingredients (cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt); and mix in milk followed by the reduced strawberry puree. I got 14 cupcakes from the recipe, which were a delicate pink from the strawberry puree. 

The frosting is an American buttercream that you make by beating softened butter with powdered sugar, ground freeze-dried strawberries, melted white chocolate, heavy cream, vanilla, and salt. The frosting was quite sweet and I had to add a few additional pinches of salt to balance it out. But I thought that the end result delivered a beautiful, sweet strawberry flavor.

I wanted to offer a second cupcake option, so I also made the "Flourless Chocolate 'Teacakes'" from Sweet by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helene Goh. The photo in the cookbook shows them baked as mini-Bundts, but the recipe can also be baked in a regular muffin tin. You make the cake batter by melting butter and dark chocolate in a double boiler; adding sugar, instant coffee dissolved in boiling water, Amaretto, ground almonds, and egg yolks; and folding in egg whites that have been beaten with sugar. You rest the batter for an hour at room temperature before transferring it to mini-Bundt or muffin molds and baking.

These chocolate cakes are topped with water ganache, which is made with water-based caramel instead of cream. You cook sugar with glucose until the mixture turns amber; add water; mix in vanilla seeds and cook until the mixture returns to a boil; pour the hot caramel over dark chocolate and whisk to combine; and finish off the ganache with some butter. I spread ganache over each cooled cupcake and it was thick enough to not drip down the sides. It also maintained a brilliant shine (a quality mentioned in the recipe headnote), resulting in a beautiful finish.

I packaged a separate box of cupcakes for each family unit attending the birthday celebration so that no one would have to touch anyone else's food. It worked out quite well, and everyone was able to use their box to easily transport any leftovers (I included two cupcakes per person -- one of each flavor). The strawberry cupcake was very good, with a strong and bright strawberry flavor in both the cupcake and the frosting. The chocolate teacake was also delicious but was obviously flourless and could not have passed for a regular chocolate cupcake. It was rich and dense with a very subtle touch of almond. I thought it tasted fantastic, but it was not the sort of fluffy chocolate cupcake one might normally expect at a birthday party for a teen and tween. 

I was very pleased with the way everything turned out, but I really hope we can go back to shared cake and birthday parties without masks next year!

Recipes: 

• "White Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes" from Sally's Baking Addiction.  
• "Flourless Chocolate 'Teacakes'" from Sweet by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh.
  

Previous Birthday Baked Goods for Liam: Liam Turns Ten (Baller Birthday Sheet Cake and Chocolate-Glazed Peanut Butter Mousse Cake); Nine (Chocolate Butter Cake with Peanut Butter Filling and Vanilla-Peanut Butter Frosting); Eight (Golden Anniversary Chocolate Chip Brownie Cake); Seven (Chocolate Butter Cake with Strawberry Mousseline); Six (Baked Ultimate Birthday Cake and Baked Strawberry Supreme Cake); Five (Mango Tart with Coconut Crust and Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes); Four (Baked Whiteout Cake and Hazelnut Cake with Praline and Milk Chocolate Buttercream Frosting); Three (Yellow Birthday Cake with Fluffy Chocolate Ganache Frosting); and One (Lemon Buttercream Torte). 

Previous Birthday Baked Goods for Alexander: Alexander Turns Thirteen (Sunny Lemon Cake and Carrot Graham Layer Cake); Twelve (Blueberry Angel Food Dream Cake and Ottolenghi Stripe Cake); Eleven (White Butter Cake with Lemon Curd and Lemon Mousseline); Ten (Strawberry Supreme Cake and Burnt-Butter Brown-Sugar Cupcakes); Nine (Antique Caramel Cake and Classic Carrot Cake Cupcakes); Eight (Carrot Cupcakes and Strawberry Cupcakes); Seven (Fraisier); Six (Rose Levy Beranbuam's Carrot Cake): Five (Riva's Carrot Cake): Four (Red Velvet Cupcakes and Brownies): Three (Red Velvet Cake and Salted Fudge Brownies); and Two (Restaurant Eve Cake).