Strawberry Cupcakes

I grew up in south Mississippi, just a short ride from Ponchatoula, LA...."the Strawberry Capitol of the World."   The 2011 40th Annual Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival was held last weekend and I have been thinking about all the strawberries we used to eat at the end of March and first part of April.  It seemed like they were everywhere.  I never had strawberries on a cupcake back then, but it is time to have them now! 

Vineyard Vogue

(blog)

Aaron Landry

via Flickr

Dawn's Sweets

Recipe of the Week - Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Week 39

Our local grocery store had a "Buy 1 - Get 2 Free" strawberry special so I couldn't pass that up.  I had a lot of strawberries in my possession and needed to do something with them....that meant making cupcakes!

baostar via Flickr

kellbakes via Flickr

Strawberry Cupcakes

2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 sticke) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cup chopped strawberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare cupcake pans with liners.

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.  Cool completely before frosting.




Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting


1/4 cup strawberries
1 Tbsp. strawberry juice
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
8 oz. cream cheese - room temp
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter - room temp
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

For frosting, put berries, and juices 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 until smooth.