paleo strawberry shortcake cupcakes

This post will be just a quick recipe because I think I spoiled myself a little too much yesterday… I have a horrid habit of thinking that “cheat days” will not affect my body what-so-ever, but man, am I wrong every time. Yesterday was no exception. I had my cinnamon streusel coffee cake yesterday for breakfast. It started off as a little piece, but escalated into “just a sliver more” very rapidly. From there, my family said they would like to have strawberry shortcake for dessert that night, so I headed off to the store for ingredients and picked up a few extra things along the way–including pistachios for my dad, it was Father’s Day after all. Now, you might be thinking, “pistachios aren’t unhealthy,” but nuts are my weakness and the empty shells began to add up… That, added up with the mindless noshing and “taste-testing” while making the cupcakes, made for an unhappy tummy last night. But, today is a new day and as I sip my water and get ready to make my green detox breakfast smoothie, I will post the recipe for my dessert last night.

I must admit, I had no clue where to even begin with a gluten and cream-free strawberry shortcake cupcake, so I did my research and found a great blog along the way! This recipe comes from Danielle Walker’s Against all Grain. She is spectacular and these cupcakes were delicious for being more on the “healthy” side—as far as desserts go.

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

♦ 2½ cups of almond flour

♦ ¾ tsp baking soda

♦ ¼ tsp sea salt (fine)

♦ ²/3 cup honey

♦ ¹/3 cup melted coconut oil

♦ 4 eggs

♦ 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

♦ 2 tsp vanilla

♦ 2 tsp lemon zest

♦ ½ cup finely diced organic strawberries

Begin by pre-heating the oven to 325°F and lining a muffin tin with baking cups.

Combine the honey, coconut oil, eggs, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla. You can do this in a normal blender, or I used my hand blender that I swear by (easy to use and easy to clean). Blend wet ingredients together until frothy.

Add the dry ingredients (minus the strawberries) and blend together until smooth. Then, gently fold in the diced strawberries.

After well-combined, spoon the batter into the baking cups. I used two tablespoons for each cup, but that gave me 16 cupcakes instead of a dozen. Place in the oven and bake for 17-20 minutes.

While the cupcakes are baking, I made the topping: Italian Strawberry Meringue. I was not sure how this would turn out, since egg whites have a track record not holding in Houston’s humid environment, but I decided to give it a try.

Ingredients:

For the Meringue:

♦ 2 room temperature egg whites (best separated when cold however)

♦ 1/3 cup of honey (made a strong, sweet honey flavor so I will decrease amount)

♦ ¼ tsp fresh lemon juice

♦ 2 tbsp of fresh puréed organic strawberries

Begin by beating egg whites and lemon juice in a stand mixer.

Bring honey to a boil over medium heat. The honey will become very frothy when boiling.

After the egg whites have stiffened, pour the boiling honey continuously while beating the meringue. Continue beating for about 8 minutes or until the meringue can hold its shape.