Satisfy your sweet tooth with these made from scratch Strawberry Cupcakes topped with cream cheese frosting. This one bowl recipe is moist and filled with delicious, sweet strawberry flavor. Save this to Pinterest so you can always find it.
With Easter and spring on the way, I’ve been craving the fresh flavors of the season. Spring is strawberry season and it is one of the first fruits that will make an entrance here on the farm. This year I will be planting strawberries as part of a fruit guild under some of my fruit trees. They tend to go everywhere, but make an excellent ground cover and layer in a permaculture garden design that gives you an edible landscape. They come back year after year and I love finding different, delicious and scrumptious ways to use them in different recipes like these Strawberry Cupcakes.
The secret to strawberry flavor
Have you ever hand one of those Good Humor Strawberry Shortcake Bars? The pink outer layer that makes it taste so delicious is made from dehydrated strawberries. That is a bit of the secret in these cupcakes too. The drying process for dehydrated strawberries makes concentrated bits of the fresh berries and enhances the natural flavors and sugars, which is why they flavor so well.
Three times the charm
However, in my strawberry cupcakes I not only use dehydrated strawberries but I also use fresh strawberries and a homemade strawberry jam. This triple threat of sweet strawberries helps to hit all the right flavor notes throughout the cupcakes.
Homemade Strawberry preserves
My homemade strawberry preserves include frozen strawberries, honey, sugar, a little lemon juice, water and cornstarch. This can be made ahead of time. In fact, you can make it two weeks ahead of time if you like and you will not use all of it for the recipe. I used 1 cup of it in my recipe and then I had the rest to just enjoy. You can also use strawberry preserves from the grocery store if you want to skip making your own. That said, since I make my own I do not know how store-bought will change the flavor of the cupcakes. They more than likely include more sugar than I use.
The Strawberry Cupcake batter
The batter for the strawberry cupcakes is very moist and so soft. This is from the addition of those fresh strawberries and the jam, but also some oil, whole milk and sour cream. All of these ingredients make a cake that is perfectly moist and almost delicate.
One bowl recipe
The batter for the strawberry cupcakes can all be made in one bowl (minus a food processor needed for the dehydrated strawberries). I love when baking is easy so in a lot of my recipes I try to use only one or two bowls and these cupcakes are no exception. It makes clean up easy while your strawberry cupcakes bake up in the oven.
Getting a pink look
So even in adding dehydrated strawberries and strawberry jam, the batter for the cupcakes will not be pink or red. Keep that in mind. The batter will be kind of a brown pink. If you want a more pink cupcake, you an add food coloring until the batter is your desired color. You can use a regular food coloring or you can try this natural food coloring {HERE}. I added four drops of food coloring to my cupcakes.
Baking the strawberry cupcakes
The cupcakes are baked at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. The ones in the photo were cooked for 26 minutes. Due to the ingredients to keep them nice and moist, the time is a bit longer than a traditional cupcake might take. It is certainly longer than a box cupcake needs. So just keep that in mind when making them. You can check for doneness by sticking a toothpick into the center of one of the cupcakes to check. When the toothpick comes out mostly clean with some bits of cake stuck to it, they are done.
Making the cream cheese frosting
Once the cupcakes are completely cooled you can make and top them with the cream cheese frosting. it includes cream cheese, unsalted butter, confectioners sugar and vanilla extract. The cream cheese and the butter need to be at room temperature before making this. I suggest taking them out in the morning on the day you want to make these. The recipe for the cupcakes makes a lot so you will have just enough frosting for all of them if you do not make it too tall.
Tips for making my Strawberry Cupcakes
- Make the strawberry jam ahead of time. It needs to fully cool before being used. I like to make it the day before or several days before.
- The fresh strawberries in the cupcakes are diced and I like them cut to anywhere from 1/4-1/3 an inch. I don’t recommend going larger than 1/3.
- The dehydrated cupcakes are crushed into a powder and to do this I recommend a food processor. I have this one {HERE} and really love it as a medium-sized food processor.
- When filling up the cupcake cups, fill them about 3/4 of the way up. The cupcakes do contain baking powder so that will give you a little rise but not too much.
- This recipe makes 24-26 cupcakes and I cook each 12-cup tin separately. Do not stack the tins or this could impact cooking time resulting in the cupcakes not fully cooking.
- You can top the cupcakes with sprinkles if you do not want to use more dehydrated strawberries like I did in the photo.
Saving the Strawberry Cupcakes
To save the cupcakes, keep them in an air tight container. You can keep them on the counter for a day or two or put them directly into the refrigerator. If you top them with a fresh strawberry do not leave them on the counter. Also, I recommend taking that off before putting them in the refrigerator.
Looking of more spring dessert recipes?
If you love a sweet, berry flavored dessert recipe like the Strawberry Cupcakes try these too!
- No Bake Strawberry Lemon Cheesecake {HERE}
- Mini Blueberry Lemon Bundt Cakes {HERE}
- Homemade Angel Food Cake {HERE}
- Strawberry and Cream Cheese Pie {HERE}
- Sun Cookies with Lemon Curd {HERE}
- Love Letter Strawberry Hand Pies {HERE}
- Single Serving Blackberry, Lavender and Lemon Ice Box Cakes {HERE}
- Blackberry Slab Pie {HERE}
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Thank you so much for joining me today, friends! I hope that you love my Strawberry Cupcakes recipe and that you come back again to visit at the farmhouse. You can find the full, printable recipe below. Happy eating!
Strawberry Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Equipment
- Spatula
- Whisk
- 1-2 cupcake tins
- Hand blender
Ingredients
- 2 cups freeze dried strawberries, crushed
- 2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 cup strawberry jam
- 1 cup vegetable oil or light flavored extra virgin olive oil
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup diced fresh strawberries About 1/4-1/3 inch. If they feel very wet, pat them dry.
- Additional dehydrated strawberries for topping. Or you can use one nice fresh strawberry too. If you plan to save these for a few days, do not top with the fresh strawberry.
- Optional: Red or pink food coloring
Ingredients for the Strawberry Jam
- 3 cups fresh or frozen strawberries
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp water
Cream cheese frosting
- 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
To make the Strawberry Jam
- To make the strawberry jam, combine strawberries, sugar, honey and lemon juice in a sauce pan and stir until the sugar dissolves and combines with the honey.
- Heat on medium until it begins to lightly boil around the edges, stirring regularly. Let it lightly boil for 3-5 minutes. Mash the strawberries with a potato masher to help break them up. Make sure you don't turn the heat higher than medium to prevent burning.
- Then turn down the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. Continue to stir occasionally so it doesn't burn on the bottom.
- When the time is up combine the corn starch and water in a small bowl. Then mix it in. Let it simmer for another 5 minutes and then remove the pot from the heat. Let it cool completely and then put the jam in a jar and place it in the refrigerator. Let it chill for at least 3 hours.
Instructions for making the Strawberry Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a food processor, dice the dehydrated strawberries until they are completely crushed.
- In a large bowl, combine the dehydrated strawberries, the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk well or sift together to combine everything.
- Then using a wooden spoon or spatula, mix in the strawberry jam and the oil until well combined. Next add the eggs and milk and combine them well too.
- Then add in the sour cream and the vanilla extract and mix everything well. You can use a whisk at this point and make sure all the flour and dry ingredients from the bottom of the bowl have been included.
- Lastly, use the spatula and fold in all the fresh strawberries.
- Prep the cupcake tins with liners and then fill each liner about 34/ of the way full. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Check for doneness by sticking toothpick in the center of the cupcake. The toothpick should come out with some crumbs stuck to it.
- Let the cupcakes cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then pull them out gently and rest them until they are totally cooled on a baking rack.
- When you are ready to serve, make the cream cheese frosting. combine the cream cheese, butter, confectioners sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl and whisk with a hand blender until well combined, smooth and creamy.
- You can either pipe the cream cheese frosting onto the cupcakes with a piping bag and tip or spread it on with a knife. You will have just enough for all cupcakes as long as you do not make them too high.
- Garnish with more dehydrated strawberries or a fresh strawberry and serve!
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