Strawberry Kiwi Cupcakes

Did anybody else drink Caprisun drink pouches when they were kids? I was in love with them. Especially the strawberry kiwi flavor. It was the only one I would drink most of the time, and I would go through boxes of the stuff every week!

And with that, began my love affair with everything strawberry kiwi. Any food or drink that had those two flavors in it- I was sure to like.

Over the years however, I stopped drinking juice bags and boxes, and I moved on. It wasn’t until recently that it came back into my world. I was making cupcakes for my mother’s church and when thinking up flavors she suggested making a strawberry kiwi one. I knew I had to try it.

So here it is, the very first recipe on my blog, Strawberry Kiwi Cupcakes. (Kiwi cupcakes with strawberry frosting) I only have a picture of the finished project, In future posts I plan on providing a lot more photos.

For the Kiwi Cupcakes: (Makes 12)

I used the vanilla cupcake receipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World and made a few changes. (Do you own this book? I was skeptical about vegan cupcakes at first- I had tried some vegan baking in the past and it didn’t always turn out, but the cupcakes and frostings in this book are better than non-vegan ones!

1 cup soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1/3 cup canola oil.
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 kiwis

Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare your muffin tins with liners

1. Mix together the soy milk and vinegar and let sit for a few minutes, allowing it to curdle.
2. Mix together the flower, cornstarch, powder, soda and salt.
3. In the bowl of your mixer, mix together the oil, sugar and curdled soy milk.
4. Mix in the dry ingredients, just until everything is combined.
5. Peel all three kiwis, and smash two of them with a fork, or spin them in a magic bullet or blender for a few seconds.
6. Dice the third kiwi into small pieces.
7. Mix both the smooshed kiwi and the diced kiwi into the batter.
8. Fill cupcake tins ¾ full and bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until they spring back when you poke them.

Now for the strawberry frosting. You can check out this link to the Basic Italian Buttercream to make the base frosting recipe. To make it taste like strawberry, you could add strawberry extract, but I prefer to take about a cup of frozen or fresh strawberries and blend them in a magic bullet or blender until there are no more chunks. I then fold this in to my buttercream, reserving a tablespoon or two to drizzle on top.

You’ll probably need to work the strawberry puree into the frosting  a little, at first it will look like it won’t mix together, but get out your whisk and some elbow grease and it’ll be delicious : )

To finish off these cupcakes I dehydrated some kiwi slices and drizzle on some of the leftover strawberry sauce.