You are going to love these strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. This is the perfect treat when you've got a sweet tooth!
I love how well strawberries and cream cheese pair in this dessert. Don't they look delicious?
Living in Florida, we have the best strawberries when they are in season.
We can usually start picking strawberries in the month of December and can still be picking sometimes in April and May.
Florida is so crazy about their strawberries that we even have a strawberry festival every year in March, to celebrate the harvest.
With music, carnival rides, exhibits, and loads of food, make sure you add it to your list of things to do if you're planning to be in the sunshine state in March!
You'll be surprised how easy these homemade strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting are to prepare, and your family will love the special treat.
What You Need
For the strawberry cupcakes, you'll need the main ingredient, strawberries!
You'll also need all purpose flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, cornstarch, unsalted butter, eggs, egg white, milk, real vanilla extract, and pink gel food coloring.
We used pretty pink cupcake liners, and they really add to how pretty this dessert turned out.
To frost the cupcakes, you'll need butter, cream cheese, sugar, heavy whipping cream, strawberries, and these pretty white edible pearls for the garnish.
Recipe
Making the Cupcakes
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line the cupcake pan with paper liners.
Separate 2 egg whites. Beat the egg whites in a mixing bowl with an electric mixer on in the bowl of a stand mixer on high speed until soft peaks form, about 2-3 minutes. Set aside.
Let's put together the dry ingredients.
When measuring flour, many people simply scoop the flour out of the bag with the measuring cup.
Did you know you could end up with 50% more than you need? This will produce a dense cupcake resulting in a dry, crumbly dessert.
Why go to all that work to make a special dessert when a simple mistake could ruin your cupcakes?
Always use a spoon or smaller measuring cup to scoop the flour into the measuring cup.
Don't pack the flour in. Tap the side of the measuring cup to fill in any air pockets.
After you’ve spooned the flour into the measuring cup, use the back of a knife to level off the top of the measuring cup.
Now that you've properly measured your flour, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
Another tip is to always take out the butter the morning you're planning to bake. It takes a while for the butter to get to room temperature.
Beat butter on high speed in a large bowl until smooth and creamy, about one minute.
Add the sugar, beating on high until the butter and sugar are creamed together, about 3-4 minutes.
Beat on medium-high while adding in the egg yolk and teaspoon vanilla extract.
Reducing the speed to low, begin to add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, adding some of the milk.
Alternate the flour mixture and milk, mixing after each addition, and ending with the addition of the rest of the flour mixture. Do not overbeat.
Using a spatula, gently fold in the egg whites, chopped strawberries, and pink dye.
Using a medium ice cream scoop fill the cupcake batter into the cupcake tin.
Bake the cupcakes at 350 degrees for 20-24 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes.
Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.
Making the Frosting
We're actually topping these strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting made with more strawberries for extra flavor. This frosting so creamy and delicious!
Cream the butter, cream cheese, chopped strawberries and confectioners' sugar until it looks light and creamy.
If the strawberry frosting doesn't look creamy, add 2 tbs of the heavy whipping cream until it turns creamy. If it's too thin, add in ¼ C of powdered sugar.
Test to see if the frosting can form and hold a stiff peak by taking a spoonful of frosting and turning the spoon upside down. If the frosting stays on the spoon it is ready. Add more powdered sugar until consistency is right.
Once your frosting is just right, the hard work is done! Scoop the frosting into a pastry bag with a large tip.
Frost beginning on the outside and working your way in to finish in the middle.
Top each cupcake with a strawberry and 6-8 edible pearls. (If using frozen strawberries, omit strawberry and add a few extra edible pearls.)
These strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting will make you look like a pro.
These are perfect for a birthday party or any day you want to serve a special dessert. See my list of Valentine's Day desserts for more ideas!
I hope this becomes one of your favorite recipes for an easy dessert!
I prefer fresh fruit. You can usually find strawberries all year long, but if they don't look great in the produce department, frozen strawberries work well, too. Just top the cupcakes with the pearls or nothing at all.
It's all about the air bubbles you get when mixing the batter. Over mix even a little bit and you'll have heavier cupcakes that won't have that spongy texture. It's best to mix on low speed. Once the ingredients are well combined, you're finished mixing!
You can use cake mix. If using vanilla cupcakes boxed mix, just add strawberries and pink dye. Leaving out the dye only affects the pink color. The cupcakes will have the same delicious flavor without the dye.
As the frosting on these cupcakes contain dairy, it's best to refrigerate them right away.
Looking for more cupcake recipes? Check out these decadent mocha latte salted caramel cupcakes!
Watching your weight? You might like these Weight Watcher cupcake recipes. And if you love cupcakes as I do, follow my Cupcake Crazy Pinterest board. As always, thank you for visiting!
Recipe
Strawberry Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
How to Make Cupcakes
- ⅓ C strawberries chopped
- 2 ⅓ cups flour
- 1 ¾ cups sugar
- 3 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 eggs separated, room temperature
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Pink gel food coloring
- Pink cupcake liners
How to Make Frosting
- ½ C unsalted butter softened
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- 4 C powdered sugar
- 4 tablespoon heavy whipping cream
- ½ C strawberries chopped
- white edible pearls
Instructions
- Cupcake Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pan with liners.
- Beat the egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form, about 2-3 minutes. Set aside.
- Whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Beat butter on high speed until smooth and creamy, about one minute.
- Add the sugar, beating on high until the butter and sugar are creamed together. (3-4 minutes)
- Beat on medium-high while adding in the egg yolk and vanilla.
- Reducing the speed to low, begin to add the dry ingredients, then add some of the milk.
- Alternate with the flour mixture and milk, mixing after each addition, and ending with the addition of the flour mixture. Do not over beat.
- Using a spatula, gently fold in the egg whites, chopped strawberries, and pink dye .
- Using a medium ice cream scoop fill the batter into the lined cupcake tins.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 20-24 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in the cupcake tin for about 5 minutes.
- Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Frosting Directions:
- Cream the butter, cream cheese, chopped strawberries and powdered sugar until it looks light and creamy.
- If it doesn't look creamy, add 2 tbs of the heavy whipping cream until it turns creamy.
- If it's too thin, add in ¼ C of powdered sugar
- Test to see if the frosting can form and hold a stiff peak by taking a spoonful of frosting and turning the spoon upside down. If the frosting stays on the spoon it is ready. Add more powdered sugar until consistency is right.
- Scoop the frosting into a pastry bag with a large tip.
- Frost beginning on the outside and working you way in to finish in the middle.
- Top each cupcake with a strawberry and 6-8 edible pearls. (If using frozen strawberries, omit strawberry and add a few extra edible pearls.
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