Strawberry Shortcakes (cupcakes)

I found a few of these little Strawberry Shortcake cuties around on pintrest, but decided to combine a few of my own recipes and shortcuts to make this quick and easy Strawberry Short-Cup-Cakes! These are perfect for any summer activity, birthdays, pot lucks, or just because! And Memorial Day is right around the corner... this is a perfect picnic treat!

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What you will need:

Silvery White Cake:
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup shortening
1 1/4 cup milk
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 large egg whites

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Line cupcake pan with paper liners or grease pan well.
Beat all ingredients except the egg whites in a large bowl with an electric mixer on low speed until well incorporated, scraping bowl constantly.  Beat on high speed for 2 minutes.
Beat in egg whites on high speed for 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.
Divide into cupcake pan filling each 2/3 way full. 
Bake 25 minutes or until an inserted cake tester comes out clean.
Allow cakes to cook before inserting filling.




Strawberry Filling:
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons sugar
10 oz. frozen strawberries in syrup (drained)
1/3 cup reserve juice

Mix cornstarch, sugar, and syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Stir constantly until mixture comes to a boil for one minute. Remove from heat, stir in Strawberries and allow filling to cool completely before using, about 30 minutes.  (Note: I ended up chopping my strawberries up a little in an electric chopper... I wanted to make sure they would slide through my piping bag.) To fill, insert tip of  piping bag with filling into top of cupcake. Fill with approximately 1 tablespoon of filling, until cake rises... it took me a couple of tries to figure out a good amount.



Topping:
I confess... all I used was Cool Whip.  I could have made my own whipped cream, or maybe a yummy icing but I didn't.. and I don't care! :) It was the perfect "frosting" for these sweet strawberry cakes.