Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
I'm baking a lot with strawberries these days. The reason is because it's summer and I want desserts that are fruity. And these strawberry cupcakes are just loaded with strawberries!
Everything is strawberry flavoured in these cupcakes. I put strawberry puree in the cake batter, and folded in some fresh, diced strawberries as well. As for the strawberry buttercream, I'm quite proud of it because I made it out of fresh strawberries. No food colouring was added to get that pink shade either. Additionally, the consistency of the buttercream was perfect to my liking and it tasted like strawberries. Some strawberry buttercream recipes don't taste like strawberries at all. :(
So in short, these cupcakes were a success. I really liked them and they were cute to look at. :) Oh, and I forgot to write: I didn't use all of the strawberry buttercream. I probably only used half of it. If you're going to pipe the same amount of frosting on the cupcakes as I did, try halving the recipe. If you have leftover frosting though, you can spread it on biscuits or pipe it on the next batch of cupcakes you bake.
For the proccess of making the cupcakes, it was all pretty easy...not very hard...Except... As I was lining my muffin tin before making the cupcakes, I didn't have enough muffin cups. Actually, I was only one short! That's why one of the cupcakes had to be baked without the muffin paper... The shape of that cupcake turned out good though. From now on I won't use muffin liners too often since they run out so fast!
But... guess what? When I finished baking those cupcakes, I found out that I had accidentally put two muffin liners in one muffin cup hole! >.<
Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream (Yield 12 Cupcakes)
Ingredients
FOR THE STRAWBERRY CUPCAKES
-1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
-3/4 tsp baking powder
-1/4 tsp baking soda
-pinch of salt
-1/2 tsp vanilla sugar
-1/2 cup room-temp. butter
-3/4 cup + 2 tbsp granulated white sugar
-1 large egg
-2 large egg whites
-1/3 cup strawberry puree (In a food processor, puree about 5-10 strawberries and measure out amount needed)
-1/4 cup buttermilk (I just added 1 tsp lemon juice to plain milk to get buttermilk)
-3/4 cup diced strawberries (Diced into about 1/4 inch pieces)
-6 whole strawberries for topping
FOR THE STRAWBERRY BUTTERCREAM (Halve recipe if you don't plan on piping a lot on cupcakes)
-1/2 cup +2 tbsp strawberry puree (In a food processor, puree about 10 strawberries and measure out amount needed)
-3/4 cup room-temp. butter
-1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
FOR THE CUPCAKES
1. Line a muffin pan with 12 muffin liners.
2. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and vanilla sugar. Sift again. Also give the ingredients a good whisk.
3. In another bowl, stir the butter with a wooden spoon until creamy. Add the sugar and get out your hand-mixer. Beat until pale and fluffy, constantly scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
4. Mix in the egg with a wooden spoon until well incorporated. Then mix in the egg whites one at a time, stirring well after each addition.
5. In the cup holding the buttermilk, add the strawberry puree. Whisk with a fork until well incorporated.
Preheat your oven at this point to 180 degrees C.
6. Add in the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture to the egg mixture by alternating. Add the flour in three additions and the milk in two, beginning and ending with the flour. Fold the ingredients in with a spatula after each addition. Do not overmix, just mix until incorporated.
7. Add the diced strawberries and fold it in with your spatula.
8. Divide the batter between the 12 muffin holes. Fill each case about 3/4 of the way full.
9. Bake the cupcakes in your preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
10. Cool the cupcakes completely before frosting.
FOR THE BUTTERCREAM
1. Pour the strawberry puree into a small saucepan. Heat it over medium-low heat, for 6-7 minutes, stirring occasionally. The mixture should boil and much of the water should evaporate. Once done, the strawberry puree should be reduced to 3 tbsp. The texture should be something like tomato sauce.
2. Pour the small amount of strawberry puree into a small container and freeze for a few minutes to cool.
3. In a bowl, stir the butter with a wooden spoon until creamy. Then get out your hand-mixer and beat until the butter is pale and nearly white. Remember to constantly scrpae down the sides of the bowl as needed.
4. Stir in 1 cup of the powdered sugar with a wooden spoon first. Then beat well with a hand-mixer. Add the cooled strawberry puree and stir with a wooden spoon first. Then again, beat well with a hand-mixer. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of powdered sugar and first stir with a wooden spoon, Finally, beat well with a hand-mixer until the mixture is like pink buttercream.
TO ASSEMBLE
1. Fill a piping bag (fitted with a star tip) with strawberry buttercream. Pipe swirls of buttercream on the cupcakes and top with strawberry halves.
Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from Cooking Classy http://www.cookingclassy.com/2014/06/strawberry-cupcakes-strawberry-buttercream-frosting/