Pure Peach Cupcake Perfection!

Last week, I mentioned how I was going to start taking something from my Sunday Love post, and I chose the Peach Cupcakes, that were posted originally by Joanne Choi at Week of Menus. I absolutely love peach, and being from the one and only peach state - could not wait to try these out!

So I got everything together during the week, I didn’t have much time for shopping so it consisted of a lot of random purchases at the checkout. One trip was Buttermilk and Toilet Tissue, wonder what the checkout fellow was thinking… I only needed a cup of the buttermilk, Mr. B will be sad he wasn’t here to finish off the container. I think just drinking it is gross but he really likes it - so now I have 3 cups that are just going to go to waste.

So late last night I decided to make the cupcakes!

I started the reciepe (below), and got to where one needed to mix the flour in the the wet batter slowly and in parts so I was using a measuring cup to do so to get smaller portions - well, me being blonde, I wasn’t really paying attention and the mixer caught the cup and all of a sudden I had a white mixer and white counter, then I started laughing hysterically which could possibly be due to the fact that I was past the point of exhaustion and had reached the “slap happy” state. You know the one where everything is funny, and you laugh so hard you cry and think you’re going to pee your pants? That was me last night, at the beginning of the process anyway.

So I pureed, pulverized, sifted, mixed, laughed, and dirtied so many dishes. My mom is always telling me that there is a better way to bake so you don’t have a gazillion dishes when you’re done, but I wish I had paid attention to the stuff that she was trying to teach me about the domesticated world when I was younger. Yes, all these dishes were in part to the cupcakes - except for the rolling pin which I just purchased and need to “season” it.

Pulled out the muffin/cupcake tins, dropped the liners in, and filled them with batter. I wasn’t sure how full to fill each cup, but after baking I can say about 1/4 inch from the top is the perfect fill point.

The first batch I cooked using the normal bake option. After I pulled the batch out I realized that they didn’t cook evenly - so the second batch I put the oven on Convection Oven, then I slightly over baked them, so you live you learn - and now I know what to do different for the next time. Because with these cupcakes there will be a lot of next times!

Peach Cupcakes

Ingredients
1 c. of unsalted, softened butter
2 2/3 c. of flour
2 1/2 t. baking power
1/2 t. salt
2 c. granulated sugar
3 large eggs
49g of freeze dried peaches, pulverized
3/4 c low-fat buttermilk
1/2 c. pureed fresh peach (about 1-1 1/2 peaches)
1 t. vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake tins with liners
Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt - set aside
In a large measuring cup or bowl, mix together buttermilk, peach puree, and vanilla extract - set aside
In Mixer, or with hand mixer - beat butter and sugar until pale, about 2 minutes.
Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Mix in pulverized peaches (I did this in my Ninja, but just use a food processor)
Mix in flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two batches of buttermilk mixture.
Mix until just combined
Place batter in cupcake liners (about 1/4” from the top)
Bake until golden brown and a toothpick in center comes out clean - about 20-24 minutes

Peach Icing

Ingredients
1 c. of softened butter
8oz softened cream cheese
49g freeze dried peaches, pulverized
1 t. vanilla extract
3-5 c. of confectioners sugar

Directions
In Mixer - mix butter until it is softened and uniform
Add cream cheese and beat together until it is well blended
Add vanilla extract and mix
Add pulverized peaches and mix
Add 3c of sugar to the mixture and mix
Add more sugar if needed and according to taste
Continue mixing until mixture is creamy and spreadable

Frost your cupcakes and enjoy! The icing and cake recipe make 24 cupcakes.

A couple of different things I did then mentioned above:
*I used Shelf Reliance Freeze Dried Peaches, if you don’t have access to these Target has Freeze Dried Peaches in their snack aisle. Be sure to use freeze dried and not fresh or dehydrated.  
*In most of my baking I use cake flour, and baking sugar - they are ground finer, and offer a more silky texture in the final product
*I added a little bit of royal rose food coloring to the icing to help it become a little more peach and a little less beige.



So go make these pronto, and let me know how you liked them! I think they are delicious, and I’m glad that I gave them all away or I would have eaten them all!

So I have never used a pastry bag, or icing tips, or any of that… so I had to experiment - and I learned it’s going to take a lot of practice to actually do something other than spirals, see exhibit A:

See not the best… and those were the best of the iced batch… haha.

Now, seriously, go make these cupcakes - you will NOT regret it!