Deliciously Decadent Strawberry Cupcakes (Made with real strawberries!)

I've always loved strawberries and strawberry flavoured things, but over the last few years I've become a bit obsessed with strawberry everything and anything I can get my hands on.

From actual strawberries, to strawberry frozen yogurt, strawberry gum and strawberry body wash. I just love it.

However, one thing that I never thought would be hard to find was a Strawberry cupcake or cake recipe that used actual strawberries and no artificial flavouring that you could make from scratch.

But boy was I wrong (at the time anyway).

After a long search I finally discovered a recipe! You can find it at the lovely blog of Confections of a Foodie Bride (she has great recipes for all occasions!)

I found it in winter naturally, so when strawberries started going on sale a while back and mum brought home 4 punnets of strawberries, I jumped at the opportunity to test out this recipe, and oh my... it was amazing! I highly recommend every lover of strawberry flavoured goodies to test this out!

I've made a few adjustments to the recipe - all my adjustments will be in brackets in blue, also I black highlighted the parts where she leaves instructions for people using frozen strawberries, just highlight it if you want to see... cause it can get confusing! But if you find my version annoying, or want some extra details be sure to check out the original recipe here and her yummy butter-cream icing recipe here.

Just a warning, this makes a lot of cupcakes if you're doing it the cupcake way. I ended up freezing half of them.

I also created the name ;) not that it matters, just letting you all know!

If you decide to make these be sure to send me pictures once your done.

Now time to go resume the job hunt!

Deliciously Decadent Strawberry Cupcakes

Ingredients

For the strawberry puree:

• 3 cups very ripe strawberries, hulled (or no-sugar-added frozen strawberries)
• 1-2 tsp sugar (optional)
• (see FAQ above for alternate strawberry puree method)

For the cupcakes/or cake:

• 1/4-1/2 cup milk, at room temperature
• 6 large egg whites, room temperature (4
  normal eggs work just fine)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cup cake flour, sifted (I used just plain flour and it turned out great)
• 1 3/4 cup sugar
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 12 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), at room temp. (this is confusing and annoying to all the australian's out there, but stick with it - ends up amazing!)

Instructions

1. If frozen strawberries in whatever form (sliced, whole, etc) and in whatever container/bag you have them in. Pour into a fine strainer placed over a bowl and let sit. Lightly toss the strawberries occasionally to remove any pockets of excess liquid. Reserve the liquid for another use or discard (see FAQ above for alternate use of the liquid).
2. If using fresh strawberries, just hull, slice and toss with a teaspoon or two of sugar and cover. Let them sit at room temperature for a couple of hours, until nice and juicy. (This was so easy and fun, I loved just occasionally walking into the kitchen and seeing the strawberries getting juicier!)
3. Place strawberries in a food processor or blender and puree. (If you don't have a food processor I imagine that you could just smush them with a fork or mortar and pestle if you have one!)
4. Reserve 3/4 cup puree for the cake. (If you are using the cooked puree method from the FAQ above, you will only use 1/2 cup puree.)
5. Use leftover puree to fill the cake or fold into the frosting, if desired (you will not have leftover puree if you use the cooked puree method). It's also fabulous spooned over ice cream... and eaten straight with a spoon. (I have left over puree in the freezer still! can't wait to use it for something this summer!)
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare two 8- or 9-inch pans: spray inside with baking spray with flour (or use some sort of grease/flour combination).
7. In small bowl, combine puree, milk (if you used the cooked puree method in the FAQ above, you'll use 1/2 cup of milk and 1/2 cup of puree; if you did not cook your puree, use 1/4 cup of milk and 3/4 cup of puree), egg, vanilla and mix with fork until well blended. In bowl of stand mixer, add sifted flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix to combine. Continue beating at slow speed and add butter. Mix until combined and resembling moist crumbs. -Add wet ingredients and beat at medium speed for about 1 minute or until full and evenly combined. Stop mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl and hand beat for 30 more seconds.
8. Note: The batter will not get any pinker in the oven so if you're disappointed in the color from your berries, maybe consider adding a drop or two of pink or red food coloring. (Mine turned out brown even though I used fresh strawberries, so I think if you want yours to be pink definitely add food colouring, the brown is a light colour and not horrible but totally up to you!)
9. Divide the batter evenly among the pans and smooth tops.
10. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (time will vary). Let cakes rest in pan for about 10 minutes and turn out onto wire racks. Let cakes cool completely (about 2 hours).

Example of the browny goodness!

Strawberry Butter-Cream Icing

This is pretty all self explanitory, yet I halved everything in this because I always end up with too much icing and its such a waste, As you can see from my cupcake above I clearly don't pack it up high, but I'm still generous with the icing and the strawberry puree is very sweet so you can do what you want! I still had left over icing, but only a little bit and thats even after I took out the leftover cupcakes from the freezer and iced them.

Ingredients

• 2 stick of butter, at room temp (half a cup of butter)
• 6 cups powdered sugar (3 cups)
• 5 Tbsp milk* (2 and a half Tbsp of strawberry puree) 
• 2 tsp vanilla extract* (1 tsp of puree again)
• 1/4 tsp almond extract (didn't do this)
• pinch of salt
• 1 vanilla bean pod, optional (I put a dash of vanilla essence in)
• a few drops of food coloring, optional (unlike the cupcakes the icing turned out really pink!)
• Instead of milk and vanilla, a fresh fruit puree (like strawberries) works great.

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients in your mixer bowl. Beat on low just until you have no more dry streaks of powdered sugar. (Add a bit of food coloring/gel here, if using. If using a vanilla bean, split the pod in half, scrape with the edge of your knife, and add the scrapings to the mixer bowl.)
2. Turn to high and whip for 3-4 minutes, until light, fluffy, and smooth, stopping once to scrape down the sides.
3. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip (I use a Wilton 1M).
4. Extra frosting can be stored in the fridge for quite a while. Bring to room temp and whip for a couple of minutes before using.