Super fluffy angel food cupcakes topped with light and boozy vodka mascarpone whipped cream and amaretto-soaked strawberries! Delicious when paired with a strawberry basil margarita.
I don’t want to talk your ear off today, frankly because I am exhausted. It’s been a very trying week of 9 hour meeting marathons, cold, dreary, rainy weather, bad news, ticks, migraines, and draining and terribly uncomfortable medical stuff that you definitely don’t want to hear about.
So instead, why don’t I introduce you to these cupcakes.
Amazingly light and boozy cupcakes, meet reader.
Reader, meet amazingly light and boozy cupcakes.
Spoiler alert: We’re using a box cake mix.
Truth be told, I used a box mix for these. I’ve been messing around with homemade angel food cake for a while now, and I just don’t have it perfect yet.
And since it requires approximately a million egg whites and a dump truck of sugar that I didn’t have on hand, I decided that I didn’t want to wait any longer to share these with you and I’d go the boxed mix route this time.
You know I try to avoid it, but sometimes it’s just necessary for your own sanity, amirite?
I had my handy dandy collapsible cupcake carrier (aff link) full of these during my commute to work, and when I was getting off the boat the captain leaned out his window and yelled out, “Someone mug that woman and take the cupcakes!”
It gave everyone a pretty good laugh, and it proved that the carrier is certainly not stealthy. In fact, it can be quite the conversation starter.
When I brought these into my office and people couldn’t get enough. I don’t know if it’s the vanilla vodka-spiked frosting or the amaretto-soaked strawberries that put them over the edge, but really… does it even matter?
Making the amaretto soaked strawberries
Making the soaked strawberries is effortless – just toss them in a bowl, add enough amaretto to cover them, and let them soak for an hour.
You could certainly make these without the strawberries because this frosting is good enough to stand on its own – but why would you say no to that gorgeous pop of red that just happens to include even more flavorful liquor?
You don’t want to hurt the strawberries’ feelings now, do you? Of course not. So be a nice person and include them so they don’t feel left out.
They look prettiest sitting atop the cupcakes in their original form, but for practicality purposes you can certainly slice or dice them before topping the cupcakes. There’s nothing wrong with that.
I will warn you though that you won’t get the same wapow! kick that you do when you bite into the whole strawberry. So if you’re going for impact, keep ’em whole.
If you’re not an amaretto fan (which I kinda feel like after you try these, you’d be a convert – just sayin’), you could also soak them in the same vanilla vodka you used for the frosting.
Well, not the same vodka – ’cause then you’d be adding pinkish, seedy strawberry-y vodka into your pristine, white frosting and… well, you get my point.
Or maybe use pineapple vodka. I get the feeling that would taste really good, too.
If you wanted to, you could double the amount of frosting, cut out the centers of these cupcakes and fill ’em up so that they’re loaded with boozy goodness.
Fair warning, though: since angel food cake is so delicate, you’re going to end up with a heavier cupcake that might throw you off since you’ll pick one up expecting it to be light as air.
But who am I to tell you how to live your life? Load ’em up. Spread frosting all over the sides of the cupcakes. Core out the center of the strawberries and add more there. Eat it straight out of the bowl with your face so that it never even sees the light of day.
You do you, friend.
After you’ve made this recipe, please consider coming back to share your experience with others by leaving a comment below with a star rating!
Boozy Angel Food Cupcakes with Amaretto-Soaked Strawberries
Ingredients
Strawberries:
- 24-36 strawberries
- Enough amaretto to cover strawberries in a bowl
Cupcakes:
- 1 box angel food cake mix
- 1 ¼ cups water
Frosting:
- 8 ounces mascarpone cheese, I use Belgioioso
- ½ cup sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons vanilla vodka
- 1 cup heavy cream
Instructions
Strawberries:
- In a medium sized bowl, add strawberries and pour in enough amaretto to cover the strawberries completely. I indicate a range of 30-36 because the amount of batter you end up with may vary. Worst case scenario is that you have extras you'll have to eat - darn it.
- Let soak for an hour while you make the cupcakes and let them cool.
Cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 375ºF. Prepare two muffin tins with paper cupcake liners and set aside (you'll reuse one of them for the rest of the cupcakes after the first two batches).
- Prepare batter according to package directions.
- Pour into prepared muffin tins, filling each cup ¾ full.
- Bake on the middle rack for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, the tops are golden brown and spring back when touched.
- Let cook in pan for a few minutes and then move to wire rack to cool completely.
Frosting:
- Chill a large mixing bowl in the fridge.
- In your chilled bowl, combine mascarpone cheese and sugar on a high speed until completely combined.
- Add vanilla vodka and heavy cream, and mix on a low setting until it is mostly combined. Now increase speed to high and whip until stiff peaks form – it may take a little while, so be patient!
- Once cupcakes have completely cooled, fit a piping bag with desired tip and go to town with frosting your cupcakes.
- Pat each strawberry lightly with a paper towel to soak up any extra liquid. If desired, slice or dice the strawberries for topping.
- Top each cupcakes with a soaked strawberry. Serve and enjoy!
Tegan
Made these for a party and they disappeared quickly. I got a lot of requests to make them again.
Leslie Kiszka
I sure hope you don’t let them down! ;)
Cindy McArthur
Do you use a hand or stand mixer?
Leslie Kiszka
Either one! Whatever you have available.