I have really been wanting to make a made-from-scratch strawberry cake recipe, but there are so many great recipes out there already. I decided that I would still do a strawberry cake recipe, but I wanted to make it unique in some way. I started considering flavors that go great with strawberry, and I came up with lemon. These strawberry cupcakes have a surprise ingredient (lemon pudding mix) which help to make them moist while also complimenting the flavor in the lemon buttercream icing.
To incorporate a ton of strawberry flavor into these cupcakes, I made a strawberry puree. I then reduced the puree by half so that I could squeeze the flavor of one and a half pounds of strawberries into just a cup and a half. I also added sour cream to this recipe to help keep the cupcakes moist for up to a week. I wanted my cupcakes to have a beautiful color, so I added a few drops of bright pink food coloring. The food coloring is completely optional as the cupcakes will still be a beautiful, but slightly paler, pink color.
I hope you love this recipe, and I would love to hear your thoughts on it! Please enjoy!
Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes
Ingredients
Strawberry Puree
- 1 1/2 lb strawberries capped
Cupcakes
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- strawberry puree
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2 1/2 cup cake flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3.4 oz package instant lemon pudding mix
- 3 drops red or pink food coloring optional
Lemon Buttercream Icing
- 1 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
- 6 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
- 2 lemons juiced
- pinch salt
Instructions
- Make the strawberry puree by capping 1 and 1/2 pounds of strawberries and pureeing them in a food processor or blender. Pour the pureed strawberries into a medium saucepan and place them on the stove over medium-low heat. Simmer the puree, stirring often, for approximately 35 minutes, or until they have reduced by half. Remove from the stove and place in the refrigerator to cool completely.
- When the puree is cool, and you are ready to make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350º and place baking cups in 24 muffin tins.
- To make the cupcakes: Cream together the butter and sugar. Add in the strawberry puree, vanilla extract, eggs and sour cream. Mix until well combined. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and pudding mix together. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix just until combined. Add in the food coloring, if desired, and mix in.
- Fill each baking cup 2/3 full with the cake batter. Bake in the preheated oven for 18-22 minutes, or until the cupcakes spring back when touched.
- To make the icing: Cream the softened butter on high speed. Add in the confectioners sugar, lemon juice and salt and beat on high speed for about 2 minutes.
- Wait for the cupcakes to cool completely before icing and serving. Enjoy!
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