Albert had an equal number of cream cupcakes, strawberry cupcakes and butter cupcakes. After he ate 32 cream cupcakes, some strawberry cupcakes and butter cupcakes, there were 44 cupcakes left. The number of strawberry cupcakes he ate was thrice the number of butter cupcakes he ate. The number of strawberry cupcakes left was 11 more than the number of cream cupcakes left. How many cream cupcakes were there at first?

	Cream cupcakes	Strawberry cupcakes	Butter cupcakes	Total cupcakes
Before	1 p + 32	1 p + 3 u + 11	1 p + 3 u + 11
Change	- 32	- 3 u	- 1 u
After	1 p	1 p + 11	1 p + 11 + 1 u	44

Number of strawberry cupcakes and cream cupcakes was equal at first.

1 p + 3 u + 11 = 1 p + 32
3 u = 32 - 11
3 u = 21

1 u = 21 ÷ 3 = 7

Total number of cupcakes in the end
= 1 p + 1 p + 11 + 1 p + 11 + 7
= 1 p + 1 p + 1 p + 11 + 11 + 7
= 3 p + 29

3 p + 29 = 44
3 p = 44 - 29
3 p = 15

1 p = 15 ÷ 3 = 5

Number of cream cupcakes at first
= 1 p + 32
= 5 + 32
= 37

Answer(s): 37