Strawberry Sugar Cookies | Copper Cutters

I've always been a strawberry fanatic.  When I was little, every birthday cake was strawberry, I even had my own little patch.  There is nothing better than real, real tiny strawberries picked from a patch.  

Here is a post of Emma picking strawberries when she was little (littler) > 

Emma and I made these after school this week.  I've become a fan of more homemade looking sugar cookies, with soft buttery icing (recipe).  They are more forgiving to decorate and are so, so yummy.  And what is better than homemade?

Here is my Sugar Cookie Recipe >

Soft Buttery Icing Recipe >

As you can see, they are super simple.  Here are the tools I used when making sugar cookies :

Copper Strawberry Cookie Cutter
Large Baking Sheet
Parchment Paper Liners
Disposable Pastry Bags


The Copper Strawberry Cookie Cutter are made locally and are packaged ready for gifting.  They come in a Cellophane bag, with a recipe card and tied with a bow.

Sugar Cookie Recipe >

Soft Buttery Icing Recipe >

If you don't use Parchment Paper - you should.  They fit perfectly on the large sheet pan, are non-stick and save you from scrubbing your pan.  I can't say enough about them!

Shop the entire Garden Home Collection, here >

Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

  

We have some special visitors coming to our house this weekend - Samantha and Baby Kate are going to be spending the night with us!  I'm planning a fun Cinderella movie night - the girls will be making their own pizzas and rice krispies with sprinkles. 

I wanted them to have another treat, too, for when they arrived so she knows how excited we are to have her.  Sam's a girly girl and loves anything with icing, so I thought these strawberry cupcakes would completely delight her.  And, after our trip to the Strawberry Patch we had to find a way to use all of our strawberries...

Here are some of our fresh from the field strawberries.  Many of the other pickers were picking 2 and 3 flats of berries, but as I said in our post, our trip to the berry patch was more about Emma having fun, so when she was done, we were done... which resulted in about 3 pounds.  Just enough to eat all we wanted and enough for this batch of strawberries.

I'm usually a white paper cupcake liner type of girl, but I just love these and thought they would make them a little more fun for the girls.  Here is a link to all of my favorite baking supplies and cupcake liners in my store.

 

The icing is a cream cheese icing with diced fresh strawberries mixed in - the pale pink color is completely from the strawberries mixed in the icing!

Fresh Strawberry  
Cupcakes
with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting


New! Printable Recipes, here.

1 white cake (mix or homemade)
1 cup of strawberries, diced
1 drop of red food coloring
....
1 stick of butter, softened
3 ounces of cream cheese, softened
4 cups of powdered sugar
1 cup of strawberries, diced  
whole strawberries, garnish

Prepare cake as directed then mix in diced strawberries.  Pour batter into paper-lined cupcake tins.   Bake as directed.  Let cool.

For frosting, mix together butter and cream cheese until smooth, then add powdered sugar and strawberries.  Mix on medium for 3-4 minutes.  When cupcakes are cool, frost generously and top with a strawberry.  Refrigerate.
 


I added just a drop of red food coloring to the batter because otherwise the baked strawberries make a brown colored cupcake.

The fresh strawberries makes the frosting just to the perfect color of pale pink... no food coloring needed!

Emma woke up from her nap just in time to sample... approved!

Easy Strawberry Gifts for Friends | Our Trip to the Strawberry Patch

 Our entire family spent this weekend back at home in Lexington for my Mom's birthday.  On Saturday night we had a Shrimp Boil for her friends, and Sunday we got up for an early morning impromptu trip to the strawberry patch.

There is nothing quite like 'real' fresh strawberries from the field.  I've gone on and on about 'real' strawberries in the past - see here for some of my posts from previous years.  For now, I'll just say they are good.  So good - and fleeting - only good for a couple of short weeks (just after peonies and just before cherries...).  I love thinking about the calendar in fruit and flower seasons. 

I have a list a mile long of what I'd like to do with these little gems (thanks to my Instagram friends!), but really, they are so, so good all by themselves.  I wanted to share this fabulously simple treat with some of our friends, so I packed some up this morning.  Simple and pretty packaging for simple and pretty berries. See below for packaging details. 



Now, for some details about or morning at the patch...

 

Fahrmeier Farms is conveniently just down the road from my parents' house in Lexington, Mo and even more conveniently owned by my cousins, the Fahrmeiers.  If you're local, they have another week or so of picking left.

 
Pack a lunch and enjoy this stunning view while you snack on your harvest.  Here is a link to their facebook page for more info.   Check the page before you go to make sure they still have berries for picking.  This is the same farm that specializes in heirloom tomatoes - I'll be sharing plenty of those with you in another month or so.

Best buds ready for picking.  And yes, Emma is wearing a princess dress.  As I said, we were at her Moo-Moo's house for the weekend, and the first thing she does when we arrive is run up and put a dress on from Moo-Moo's trunk.  There's no fighting it... apparently the apple doesn't fall far from the tree (as I'm often reminded).

Family affair.  And no, Mike and my Dad are not playing football.

Princesses love strawberries... and dirt.

We're headed to Sam's house in a little while to spend the weekend and I'm planning a scavenger hunt for the girls... any ideas?  I haven't done one of these in about 25 years : )

Products from my store that I used to pack up the little baskets for friends :

Wooden Baking Baskets (small size)

Large Cello Bags



Everyday Tags & Cards (in Papaya Pashmina & Concord Green... Emma's Pink would look so cute, too!)

Cotton Ribbon (thin)

I love having all of this supplies for making gifts at a moment's notice... it is always the kind of thing we always mean to do, but never get around to actually doing ;)

You could also include some sugared scones with the berries for a make-your-own Strawberry Shortcake kit - that would be darling. 

So nice to be able to start the week by making something beautiful for someone else - in literally less than 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, this is happening in my kitchen right now... Emma better hurry home from school!

A Day in the Strawberry Patch with Emma

Summer's really not complete without a trip to the strawberry patch.  For the last two years, I competed in the Verrill Farm Strawberry Recipe Contest (which I never won...), but now that we're back home I wasn't sure where we'd go for picking. 

Emma is just ripe for the picking age! Children are welcome at strawberry patches - they are just the right height.   It was so fun to see her get to explore and run and pick and eat without having to constantly tell her "no."

When I was young I was crazy for strawberries.  I've shared this photo before, but it really is worth sharing again.  Here I am on my 2nd Birthday - complete with a "Strawberry Shortcake" cake and a punkin' pie haircut... looking so much like my Emma.

Enjoy our photos from our day in the Strawberry Patch!

At least once a week I try to find an activity that is all about Emma. 

Sometimes I feel like our typical days are filled with things she can't do - open certain cabinets, climb on the furniture, run down the driveway...

...play with anything but her toys, spray the windex, or run around Target like a madwoman. 

Both of us have so much fun when we do things and go places where she can have free rein and do whatever she wants to do without me holding her back. 

On our special Emma days, I try not to have the camera in her face, too much...

...or make her pose, or try to get the perfect shot of her smiling.

  I just let her be and do whatever she wants to. 

Even if that means running through fields...

She has a great time and I'm usually rewarded with a big smile... and very long nap-time in the afternoon!