Old Fashion Fruit Salad Cupcakes

Oh Cupcake Hero Challenge, you almost got me on this one. I joined during peppermint, caught my stride during coffee, said cheers during liquor but this one was not an easy challenge for me. I struggled with what approach I wanted to take and I wanted a challenge. But how much can you do with a marshmallow?

I started making a list of all the desserts and dishes that have marshmallows (s’mores, Peeps, rocky road, sweet potato pie). I was actually committed to one of those desserts when I had a dream (some may even call it a premonition) about what cupcake I should make for Cupcake Hero: Marshmallow.

I had a dream about cupcakes. It’s the first time for me. Any who…

You see, I had been thinking about my grandmother (Moo Moo). I didn’t go home this year for Easter and she always puts together the best Sunday lunches. One of her signature dishes is Old Fashion Fruit Salad. It’s a simple cut fruit salad with homemade whipped cream and marshmallows! Ah-freakin-ha! There was my challenge. How could I turn her salad into a cupcake?

I started with the Strawberry Cupcake recipe from Sprinkles that I found on the website All Things Cupcake. This is the second Sprinkles recipe I’ve made. They’re good. It seems that most of them follow more of the chiffon cake method rather than traditional Betty Crocker recipes.

For the fruit in the salad I went with apples, pears and bananas. I also added in pecans and a small squares of vanilla marshmallows. I thought that adding juicier peaches would make the frosting too runny. And as you’ll read on later that was a good move.

See that ooey gooey frosting? Um, my original intention was for the frosting to actually stay on the cupcake, not run all the way down it. I had made a cream cheese frosting that had whipping cream in it also, which made the mixture too thin once I started mixing in the fruit. It could have been better to go with a firmer frosting and put the fruit on the top.

But that didn’t really stop me from enjoying every bite of it. The cake recipe called for fresh or frozen strawberries. I only had fresh ones and the flavor was good, but I think that using frozen strawberries would have made the taste more pronounced. I also added red food coloring to add more color and pop.

And we’re finished!

Fruit Salad Cupcakes

For the cupcake I followed the Sprinkles’ Strawberry Cupcake recipe posted on All Things Cupcake.

What I suggest you do for the frosting (not what I did)

Make a firm frosting like cream cheese or a buttercream frosting. Chop fruit and mix with the juice from 1/2 lime. This will help prevent it from browning. Add homemade marshmallows and pecans.