I have a bad habit of buying strawberries at the grocery store every week and then not eating them. Inevitably, strawberries end up rotting before I can eat them. So when I saw this recipe on Annie’s blog, I made a mental note to give these cupcakes a try the next time I had strawberries sitting around. This morning I had some free time and some strawberries and set out to give these a shot.
First, for the problems. The biggest problem I had was with the frosting. I don’t know what I did wrong, but my frosting was more like glaze. There was no way I could pipe this frosting onto the cupcakes so I just wound up spreading it with a spatula. I also had an issue with some of my cupcakes deflating in the middle after they were baked. That’s not a problem unique to this recipe as it seems to happen fairly often when I make cupcakes or muffins, but it’s still frustrating.
And now for the good news... these were amazingly tasty!! They have great strawberry flavor. It’s not too overwhelming and the chunks of strawberries in the cupcakes are such a great addition. I have a feeling it’s going to be very tough not to eat all of these myself!
By Tracey
Strawberry Cupcakes
from Annie’s Eats
Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
- 2 ½ cups cake flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- ¼ tsp. salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup oil
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 cups chopped strawberries
For the frosting:
- ½ c. strawberries
- 8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 ¾ cups powdered sugar, sifted
- ½ tsp. lemon juice
- 1 tbsp. vanilla
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.
Sift flour, salt and baking soda into a medium bowl. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time until combined. Add buttermilk, oil and vanilla and beat until combined. Add flour mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in chopped strawberries. Fill cupcake wells ¾ full with batter. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.
For the frosting, puree strawberries in food processor. Strain through a mesh sieve to remove seeds, and set aside. Beat the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Add lemon juice, vanilla and strawberry puree. Adjust the amount of puree to achieve your desired consistency. Frost cupcakes when completely cool.
Makes about 18 cupcakes.
