Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes
Lip-smackin, sunshine sweet strawberry cupcakes made 100% from scratch with real strawberries. Fluffy, moist, and bursting with strawberry flavor! Top them with homemade strawberry buttercream. This is the BEST strawberry cupcake recipe ever.
Strawberries would definitely be on my top 20. (<—- Name that commercial.)
I love them plain, dipped in sugar, dipped in chocolate, blended with fruits in smoothies or acai bowls and topped on shortcakes. My favorite strawberry combo of all would definitely be this granola over strawberry yogurt. I’d rather have a bowl of strawberry yogurt with nutella granola than a box of chocolate dipped strawberries. And that’s saying something.
Today’s recipe definitely steals the spotlight because it’s my new favorite way to use strawberries! Perfectly sweet, fruity, and non-artificial tasting homemade strawberry cupcakes topped with a strawberry buttercream. They are to die for!! No doubt about it, you’re going to love these cupcakes.
The best thing about these cupcakes is that they use fresh strawberries – no artificial flavors here! Because what’s strawberry shortcake without… well… real strawberries?
To make sure all the flavor from the strawberries was utilized, I pureed the strawberries. I always use this small and handy manual food processor whenever I have little jobs like this one. You cold also use a blender or a large food processor.
These cupcakes are bursting with strawberry flavor! If you want the strawberry cupcakes to be bright pink, just add a few drops of red food coloring until the batter reaches your pink shade of choice.
Trust me on this, fresh strawberry cupcakes taste incredibly better than artificial strawberry cupcakes from a box.
Not only is the cupcake jam-packed with bits of fresh strawberries, but so is the lip-smackin strawberry buttercream that the cupcakes get topped with. Luscious and creamy on top of the fruity cupcakes – perfection.
Trust me, you want to make these as soon as humanely possible.
P.S. If you have extra frosting, dip fresh strawberries in it… so naughty, but oh so good.
If you love strawberry shortcake, you will go crazy for these! Enjoy! 🙂
Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
- 1 cup whole fresh strawberries
- 11/2 cups all-purpose flour sifted
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. coarse salt
- 1/4 cup milk whole, skim, almond, and coconut are fine.
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 8 Tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 egg whites
For the frosting:
- 1 cup fresh strawberries
- 16 Tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold
- Pinch of salt
- 4 cups powdered sugar (up to 1 cup extra)
- 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
For the Cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.
- Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- Pulse 1 cup strawberries in a small food processor until puréed. 1 cup of strawberries will yield about 2/3 cup of purée. Add a few more strawberries, if necessary, or save extra purée for frosting.
- In a small bowl, mix together milk, vanilla, and 2/3 cup strawberry purée; set aside.
- Cream butter on medium-high speed of mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add granulated sugar and continue to beat until well-combined and fluffy. Reduce mixer speed to medium and slowly add egg and egg whites until just blended.
- Add half flour mixture, slowly, with mixer on low; mix until just blended. Add milk mixture; mix until just blended. Slowly add remaining flour mixture, scraping down sides of bowl with spatula, as necessary, until just blended.
- Scoop batter evenly among prepared muffin cups, filling up 2/3 to 3/4 the way full. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, be sure to test using a toothpick to make sure they are completely done in the center. Transfer muffin pan to a wire rack and let cupcakes cool completely in pan before icing.
For the Frosting:
- Purée strawberries until smooth. Beat together butter and salt on medium speed of mixer until light and fluffy. Reduce mixer speed and slowly add sifted powdered sugar; beat until well combined. Add vanilla and 1/4 cup strawberry purée, mix until just blended. Do not overmix or frosting will incorporate too much air. Frosting consistency should be dense and creamy, like ice cream.
This looks so tasty and easy! My husband’s birthday is Saturday and I was looking for something to make. Found it! Thanks! Visiting from Hit Me With Your Best Shot.
Yay! So excited for you to try them!! 🙂
These look SOOOO good! Pinned to try.
Thanks Jill!! 🙂
How do you store these? I want to make them a day or two ahead of my niece’s birthday party..
I would make the cupcakes unfrosted and store until ready to serve. Frost just before serving. Hope that helps! 🙂
Love these. Will give them a try. The frosting looks super.
Just made these and they were so good! I will definitely be making them again and adding them to my list of flavors, thanks!
So happy you liked them! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Can I use frozen strawberries for this recipe? In Puerto Rico not allways is easy to find fresh strawberries 🙁
I’m not sure! I have never tried it, but if you do – try defrosting them in the microwave and then pureeing the strawberries in the blender. Hope that helps!
thanks for the reply! I did it with frozen strawberries and it worked very well. I let strawberries thawing in the refrigerator overnight and then made puree. The cupcakes were delicious. 🙂
The cupcakes are super moist and delicious. Love them.
So happy to hear!
Can these be made with cake flour?
Yes, that should work in equal ratios!
These sound so good, thanks for sharing this delicious looking recipe.
Simon
Made these the other day & what a hit! Received rave reviews on the cupcakes, however I had trouble with the frosting (not sure what went wrong) so had to tweak that a bit. Will definitely use the cupcake recipe in the future though! Beautiful garnished w/a slice of fresh strawberry. Thanks so much! 🙂
Thanks for sharing this recipe! Just baked this for my family a few days ago — it was a hit! 12 cupcakes finished within 24 hours! I was just wondering, is there a particular reason why the recipe calls for 2 extra egg whites? Why not 3 whole eggs? (I ask because I’ve another vanilla cupcake recipe that requires 3 whole eggs.) Would love to hear from you. But otherwise, thanks again for this fab recipe!!!
Hi Cheryl! From my experience – the egg whites make the batter fluffy and light, while egg yolks make the batter rich and creamy… so that is why I increased the egg whites and decreased the egg yolks because you want your cupcakes to be light and fluffy!
I see… Thanks!! Oh and, the cupcakes were a delicate light pink in color, which was gorgeous! I suspect the extra 2 egg whites might have had a hand in that too… 🙂 Cheers!
I really liked these cupcakes! The cakes had a nice flavor and color, and they weren’t too dry or too dense. The butter cream was a little intense, surprisingly. I didn’t think I’d get enough strawberry flavor, but it was very present and a little overpowering, actually. (How can strawberry be an overpowering flavor in STRAWBERRY cupcakes?! I don’t know.) I think I’ll use maybe 2 or 3 tablespoons of strawberry purée next time and put less frosting on the cakes themselves. But the color was beautiful! I got tons of compliments!
Tip: Make all your purée at once! When I was making the buttercream, I ran into the problem of there not being enough liquid in my food processor, so do it all at once and split it up.
I made these cupcakes the other day when I came across your website and have to say they were delicious. I wanted to know if you have tried them with any other fruit — like blueberries, etc.
Thanks
I haven’t, but I am sure that would work!