Strawberry Cupcakes

The strawberries in the grocery stores are finally sweet, not to mention on sale. Here's one way to use them. You will need a 1 lb. container of strawberries to make these delicious cupcakes. The strawberry frosting was amazing, creamy, tangy, and packed with fresh strawberry flavor. Next I want to use the strawberry frosting on homemade banana cupcakes! Mmmm strawberry banana....

Strawberry Cupcakes:
Compliments of Good Things Catered
2 1/2 c. cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c. unsalted butter
1 1/2 c. sugar (minus one heaping tablespoon)
2 eggs
1/3 c. buttermilk
1/4 c. oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 c. chopped strawberries

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare 2 cupcake pans.
-Sift flour, salt, and baking soda in medium bowl.
-In bowl of mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
-Add eggs one at a time until combined.
-Add buttermilk, oil and vanilla until combined.
-Add flour mixture and stir until just combined.
-Fold in berries.
-Fill cupcake pans 3/4 way.
-Bake for 20 minutes.


Strawberry Frosting:
1/4 c. strawberries
1 Tbsp. strawberry liquor (I used strawberry extract)
1/2 tsp lemon juice
8 oz. cream cheese, room temp
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
1 3/4 c. powdered sugar
1/2 Tbsp vanilla

-For frosting, put berries, extract/liquor, and juice in saucepan.
-Bring to a boil over medium heat and then reduce to a simmer for 5 mins.
-Let cool then blend until smooth.
-In bowl of mixer mix cream cheese and butter until creamy.
-Add sugar, then vanilla.
-Add berry puree (after cooking I pureed in the blender) until smooth.
-Frost cupcakes when they are completely cooled.


If you are low on time, I'd recommend making the frosting and buying a Duncan Hines Cake Mix. (While i'd never dream of using canned frosting, cake mixes are usually a good product.) Duncan Hines mixes have been rated the best cake mix brand and are always guaranteed to be fluffy and moist. I'd stick to their basic Devil's food and Yellow cake mixes because some of their flavored mixes have a very artificial taste. If you want to add other flavors to the basic mix, recipes from the Cake Mix Doctor should do the trick.