Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes With Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

I know, I have been a little MIA this last month.  I have been working on the blog I just haven’t been able to keep up with the posting, I am so sorry to leave you all hanging!  I appreciate all the emails from my lovely readers asking if I’m alright, I definitely am!  But now I’m back with the cupcakes and summery treats so I hope you’re ready I made one really fun dip this week and I’m sitting here right now craving it! It was dangerously easy to make and too good to forget…
Aren’t these just mesmerizing?  Fresh strawberries make anything look better and this strawberry frosting is all natural and you won’t find anything better around.  I have a whole post dedicated to it and I’ll be posting it in a few days!  I’ll show you step-by-step what I do to get this heavenly frosting that all my friends are obsessed with.

You can call these Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes or even Pink Lemonade Cupcakes if you want to get really cute! You can even cut up a cute straw into a few small pieces and garnish the cupcakes like my hot chocolate cupcakes to make everyone “ooooh” and “ahhh” over them.

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes With Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
Prep Time: 35 minutes
Cook Time: 17 minutes
Total Time: 52 minutes

Ingredients

Cupcakes

• 1/4 cup freeze dried strawberry powder ((14 g, 1/2 oz))
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt ((1 g))
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar ((127 g))
• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour ((211 g))
• 1/2 cup pureed strawberry ((113 g, 4 oz))
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda ((2 g))
• 1 teaspoon baking powder ((4 g))
• 1/3 cup buttermilk ((77 g, room temperature))
•  1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract ((2 g))
• 1 large egg ((room temperature))
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil ((50 g))

Lemon frosting

• 4 oz unsalted butter ((113 g))
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 4 oz cream cheese ((113 g))
• 1/2 cup powder sugar ((50 g))
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract ((2 g))
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract ((1 g))   

Strawberry frosting

• 4 oz unsalted butter ((113 g))
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract ((1 g))
• 4 oz cream cheese ((113 g))
• 1/2 cup powder sugar ((50 g))
• 2 tablespoon ground freeze dried strawberry ((7 g, 1/4 oz))   

Filling

•     1/2 cup lemon curd

Instructions

Prepare the strawberry powder

1. Add 3/4 oz of freeze dried strawberry to a food processor and process until a powder forms. Keep a kitchen towel draped over the food processor while it’s working to prevent the strawberry powder to escape and fly everywhere.
2. This should yield 6 tablespoons. Use 4 tablespoon (1/4 cup) for the cupcake batter and the remaining 2 tablespoon for the strawberry cream cheese frosting.

Make the cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners and set aside.
2. Add 1/4 cup of strawberry powder to a small mixing bowl along with flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Mix with a whisk to distribute evenly. Set aside.
3. In the same food processor used previously for the freeze dried strawberry, add the fresh strawberry and puree. Add strawberry puree in a medium mixing bowl along with buttermilk, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla extract. Beat together with a whisk until smooth.
4. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredient mixture and fold until just combined.
5. Use a large ice cream scoop to divide batter into the previously prepared muffin pan. One flat scoop of batter for each cupcake cavity, or about 1/4 cup of batter each.
6. Bake in the middle oven rack for 16 - 17 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to the touch, remove cupcakes from the pan and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

Make the frosting

1. Allow the cream cheese and butter to come to room temperature and softened before you get started. It can speed up the process to cut them into small cubes.
2. For lemon frosting, add softened butter, cream cheese, lemon zest along with the vanilla and lemon extract to a stand mixer bowl, mix with the whisk attachment at medium low speed and gradually increase speed to medium high and beat until thoroughly combined. Stop the mixer to add powder sugar, mix at low speed to incorporate the powder mixture into the cream mixture, then gradually increase speed to medium high and beat until thoroughly combined and fluffy.
3. For strawberry frosting, add softened butter, cream cheese, along with the vanilla extract to a clean stand mixer bowl, mix with the whisk attachment at medium low speed and gradually increase speed to medium high and beat until thoroughly combined. Stop the mixer to add powder sugar and 2 tablespoon of strawberry powder, mix at low speed to incorporate the powder mixture into the cream mixture, then gradually increase speed to medium high and beat until thoroughly combined and fluffy.
4. To create swirl frosting, lay out a piece of plastic wrap on the counter, scoop out each frosting separately and lay them side by side in two logs. Roll up the plastic wrap to create 1 log of frosting with two colors.
5. Add a piping tip of your choice to a pastry bag, cut off the excess plastic wrap at one end of the frosting log to expose the frosting and add to the pastry bag without removing the plastic wrap. Set aside until read to use.

Assemble the cupcakes

1. Use the bottom of a frosting tip to cut out holes on top of a cupcake, push down and twist. Use a chopstick to push out the plug inside the frosting tip. Repeat one more time to create a deeper hole if desired.
2. Spoon in 1 - 2 teaspoons of lemon curd to fill the hole. Add the plug of cupcake back on top to cover the filling. Add frosting.
3. Repeat the process for the rest of the cupcakes. Garnish with fresh strawberry or candied lemon slice if desired.

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes With Strawberry Buttercream Frosting #Strawberry #Lemonade #Cupcakes #With #Strawberry #Buttercream #Frosting Dessert Recipes Easy Strawberry, Dessert Recipes Easy Gluten Free, Dessert Recipes Easy Pie,