Everything is coming up...strawberries

Strawberries are my favorite fruit of all time. My mother always had a huge strawberry patch and would freeze quarts of strawberries for winter consumption - my consumption mostly. I would take a quart of frozen strawberries, sprinkle some sugar on top and eat away. Yes, still frozen. I love them!

So when I was planning what to take to a 4th of July picnic, you know I thought of strawberries. I love strawberry shortcake, but it doesn't transport well to an outdoor event. So I decided to create a strawberry shortcake cupcake. I didn't stutter, you read right.

I took a basic fruit bread recipe and replaced the fruit with macerated strawberries. I also added a little cream and extra egg. After filling the cupcake liners, I sprinkled some large decorating sugar crystals on top to add that crunch that shortcake gets after baking.

To top my little gems, I made a basic cream cheese frosting and added some reserved strawberry syrup for flavor and some pinkness. Again I topped the icing with some sugar crystals and then some sliced strawberries.

If I don't say so myself, they were great. One very appreciative young man at the picnic said, "these should be on the menu at Gigi's". Wow.