Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes with Meringue Icing

So I completely forgot about Cinco de Mayo. Shocker, I know. I only remembered when I started seeing recipes pop up early last week but by then I had already planned out all the recipes for the week. But I'm not going to forget about Mother's Day! This is the perfect recipe to make for dessert. Strawberries are in abundance right now and this is a great way to use them.

I adapted the cupcake recipe from How Sweet it Is and I got the icing recipe from Skinnytaste. One of the changes I made to the How Sweet it Is recipe is the addition of light butter. This made the cupcakes a little denser than a usual cupcake, but I liked it because they felt a little more substantial and probably would not change it in the future.

Strawberry Cupcakes with Meringue Icing

Makes 12 servings, serving size 1 cupcake

Ingredients:
Cupcakes
1/4 cup fat free sour cream
1/4 cup light butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg white
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped strawberries

Icing
2 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch salt
1-3 drops red food coloring

Instructions
Cupakes
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line your cupcake pan with liners or spray with baking spray.

1. With an electric mixer, beat together sour cream, butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes; add in egg, egg white and vanilla and mix until combined; on low speed, add in flour, baking soda and salt and then gradually increase the speed; add strawberries and mix until the strawberries have broken down (if the batter does not have enough liquid and does not resemble cake batter, add a couple tablespoons of fat free milk).

2. Pour batter into the cupcake pan filling each 2/3 of the way full; bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes; let cool completely before frosting.

Frosting
1. In a small saucepan, add sugar and water and bring to a boil for 4-8 minutes, or until the mixture reaches 234 degrees F on a candy thermometer.

2. While the sugar water is boiling, add egg whites and vanilla to the bowl of a stand mixer; whip the egg whites on low speed until they are foamy peaks; when the sugar syrup is done, slowly pour it into the stand mixer and turn the mixer to medium-high; whip the mixture until the egg whites form stiff, shiny peaks; beat in salt and food coloring until the icing is a uniform pink color.

Nutritional Information
Calories: 183
Fat: 2
Carbohydrates: 38
Fiber: 1
Protein: 3
Sodium: 116
Points+: 5