Strawberry Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

This weekend was my Great-Grandfather's 95th birthday.

Ninety-five.

He's a WWII veteran and the patriarch of my family, yet he's still as goofy as if he was twenty.

And his most favorite thing in the world is strawberries.

Anything strawberry-flavored and he's sold.

So when my family asked me to make him some birthday cupcakes, I couldn't resist the temptation to make them strawberry.

Needless to say, everyone loved them.

This is originally a Martha Stewart cupcake recipe, but after baking three different sets of cupcakes, I decided that I liked them baked at 375 F instead of the 350 F that she likes to bake them at.

This is a nicely light and fluffy cupcake and the strawberries bake up and flavor this beautifully. I am also a sucker for the strawberry-cream cheese pairing, so I decided on that over her decadent Strawberry Meringue Buttercream.

Assemble your ingredients! (Bread is not an ingredient, I promise)

Firstly, sift together your two types of flour, salt, and baking powder in a separate bowl.

Cream your butter and sugar until it's nice and fluffy. I changed a diaper while this was creaming, so it's extra fluffy!

Add in your eggs one at a time and the vanilla and mix that baby good.

The batter is a bit pale (though my pictures make it look pretty vibrant. I also use farm-fresh eggs from my father-in-law's chickens, so mine tends to be a bit more yellow).

Slowly add in 1/4 of your flour mixture.

Then about 1/3 of the milk.

Keep alternating. Always begin and end with flour.

While your batter is mixing, I took the time to dice a whole package 16oz package of strawberries.

The recipe calls for 10oz, but I'm not really counting.

Plus - the more strawberries, the better.

Pour your batter into baking cups in a cupcake pan until each cup is about 2/3 of the way filled.

Here's where I tried three different baking methods.

Martha says to bake at 350 F.

Well, I tried that.

And my cupcakes came out like craters.

So I tried 375 F for ten minutes and then 350 F for the last ten minutes.

Not so bad, but still craters.

With the third batch, I tried 375 F the entire way through.

Behold! Flat cupcakes!

Which are perfect for me because of the way that I like to frost them.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huuuuuge fan of fluffy cupcakes - but with the strawberries in the recipe, it makes for a certain amount of density which doesn't allow much room for fluffiness.

Food science, ya'll.

Then after slaving away in the kitchen all morning, I drove to College Station with Little Bird to attend a wedding.

Many congratulations to the happy couple!

Then I drove back all night and after getting home at one in the morning, Little bird wakes me up at 7am and it's time to make frosting!

Assemble ingredients! Make sure that your cream cheese and butter are to room temperature!

(If not, nuke them in the microwave until soft to the touch, but not overly soft - more on that later.)

Beat the cream cheese and butter until it's blended.

Then add in your vanilla, pinch of salt, milk, and powdered sugar.

Beat 'em up.

Beat 'em up until they yield to the pressure of your mixer and conform into one stiff, but soft mess of sugary confection.

Then put that incredible frosting into your piping bag (or a plastic bag with a corner snipped out) and pipe onto your cupcakes.

Another method is to spread a thin layer of frosting on the top of the cupcake and then pipe more frosting on that. It makes for a well-covered cupcake, but it's not as pretty.

Also, I meant to go out and buy some tips for my piping bag and I forgot.

So, my cupcakes certainly aren't up to par.

But who cares?

CUPCAKES!

Ingredients

Strawberry Cupcakes

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 3/4 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup milk
• 1 package of strawberries, hulled and diced into small pieces

Sift together flours, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.

Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy - 3-4 minutes. Slowly add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and mix well.

Carefully add in flour mixture to butter mixture, alternating with milk. Begin and end with flour mixture. Mix until ingredients are well-blended.

Slowly fold in diced strawberries.

Be sure to scrape the sides of your bowl down and make sure the strawberries are incorporated throughout the batter.

Pour into baking liners in a cupcake pan.

Bake at 375 F for 20 minutes.

Makes about 30 cupcakes

Cream Cheese Frosting

*note that measurements may not be exact. I usually guess at how much I'm putting into my frostings*

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
• 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 4 tbsp milk (more or less, use until frosting reaches desired consistency)

Cream butter and cream cheese in a medium bowl until creamy. Beat in vanilla and salt.

Add in powdered sugar by a cupful and milk by a tablespoonful until you have reached the desired consistency of your frosting.

Spoon into a piping bag or a plastic bag with the corner snipped out and pipe onto cupcakes.

Extra frosting can be frozen.

Now it's time to plan a mini-vacation to Aurora, Colorado with the StudHubs and Little Bird...

Hope you enjoyed this! Comment and tell me how yours turned out!

All photos were taken with iPhone 4 and edited with iPhoto.