If you’re like me, visiting the produce section of the grocery store in the middle of winter is a huge let-down. While I do love the changing of the seasons, living in the middle of the country really limits what we can easily purchase when it comes to fruits and vegetables- yes, you can buy strawberries in January, but they are usually smaller, less flavorful and always on the verge of spoiling by the time you get them home.
Because we are always left scurrying to finish fruit before it goes bad, I find myself doing a lot of baking with fruit in the winter time – banana breads, blueberry muffins, and of course these strawberry cupcakes. Using fresh strawberries in cake really improves the flavor – in this case, there is just no comparison to the boxed cake mix.
I’ve made this cupcake a couple of times before but it’s one of those elusive recipes that I always forget to take pictures of – so this time I made sure I snapped a couple of quick ones before I delivered them. To me, these cupcakes taste a lot like good strawberry ice cream. The cake uses real strawberry puree in the batter, which not only gives them a great pink color, but it also makes them taste amazing. The swiss meringue buttercream is creamy and perfectly compliments the sweet strawberry flavor.
Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
with a spatula, as necessary, until just blended.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
(Click here) for recipe but omit strawberry puree. Or, leave it in if you want a double strawberry cupcake! Can’t hurt!
Source: Cupcakes: Martha Stewart via Sprinkles Bakery
Lisa says
What sweet and pretty looking cupcakes. I have a sweet treat linky party going on at my blog till Monday night and I’d love it if you’d come by and link your cupcakes up. http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com/2012/01/sweets-for-saturday-51.html
Jen at The Three Little Piglets says
Saw these over on Hello Cotton on the cupcake thing! So darn cute!
Deea says
These are gorgeous! And this is a silly question but how did you make your cupcakes perfectly cylindrical instead of flared at the top like usual cupcakes. I love the look!! 🙂
Erin @ Lemon Sugar says
Hi! I’m not sure, some cupcakes bake with domed tops and some just bake with flat tops – I did use a jumbo cupcake pan for these and didn’t fill them all the way (only about 2/3 full) so now that I think about it, that probably contributed to the “flatness” of the top. Hope this helps!
Megan says
These look awesome, and I’m going to try these this week! I was wondering do you have a strawberry buttercream frosting? Not the meringue one