Strawberry Surprise Cupcakes
A strawberry cupcake with chopped strawberries inside and topped with strawberry buttercream.
Ingredients
Strawberry Puree
- 2 cups chopped fresh strawberries
- ½ cup sugar
- juice from ½ lemon
Cupcake Batter
- 1⅔ cups flour
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 egg whites
- ¼ cup buttermilk
- ⅓ cup strawberry puree
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1¾ cup fresh strawberries (¾ cup for filling cupcakes)
Frosting: Strawberry Buttercream
- ½ cup strawberry puree
- ½ cup salted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Strawberry Puree
- Dice 2 cups of fresh strawberries
- add to pot over medium-low heat
- add sugar
- add lemon juice
- cook 5-10 minutes
- remove from heat and use immersion blender to make smooth puree
Cupcake Batter
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Put 12 paper liners into a cupcake tin or better yet, use silicone baking cups
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whip the butter and granulated sugar until fluffy.
- Mix in the egg and then the egg whites.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, strawberry puree, and vanilla extract.
- Alternately add the flour and buttermilk mixtures to the large mixing bowl with the butter, sugar, and eggs until just combined.
- Fold 1 cup of the diced strawberries into the batter.
- Scoop the batter into the cupcake pan, filling each one two-thirds full.
- Bake 20 to 24 minutes.
Frosting: Strawberry Buttercream
- In a small saucepan, heat the strawberry puree over medium-low heat, until it is reduced to 3 tablespoons. It takes about 15 minutes and will be thick.
- Pour into a small bowl (preferably glass) and put in the freezer to cool. This will take only a few minutes and it's good to stir it once or twice so that it cools evenly.
- In a medium bowl, whip the salted and unsalted butters until fluffy.
- Alternately mix in the powdered sugar, cooled strawberry puree, and vanilla until the frosting reaches the desired consistency.
- Before frosting, hollow out the center of the cupcakes with a curved grapefruit knife and scoop in the remaining diced strawberries.
- When the cupcakes are cool, pipe the strawberry buttercream on top in the desired amount.