• • 2 Hour Before
  • 2 cups (4 sticks) butter
  • Place butter on counter and let rise to room temperature. You will use some for the batter and some for the frosting.
  • Cupcakes
  • Preheat oven to 350 °F. Place liners into 24 cupcake tins.
  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
  • 2 cups whole strawberries
  • Wash and stem strawberries. In a blender or food processor, puree until smooth, about 1 â…“ cups pureed. Transfer to a medium bowl.
  • ½ cup milk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 teaspoons lemon zest
  • Add milk, vanilla, and lemon zest to bowl with pureed strawberries. Whisk to combine and set aside.
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) reserved butter
  • 2 cups sugar
  • In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar with an electric hand mixer until light and fluffy.
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 egg whites
  • One at a time, add eggs and egg whites to creamed butter, beating until well combined each time.
  • reserved dry flour mixture
  • reserved wet strawberry mixture
  • Add â…“ of reserved dry flour mixture to butter mixture and blend until just combined. Add â…“ of wet strawberry mixture and blend until just combined. Repeat two times with remaining dry flour mixture and wet strawberry mixture.
  • Using a ¼ cup measure, scoop batter into prepared cupcake tins, filling them about ¾ of the way.
  • Bake at 350 °F until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.
  • Remove from oven and place tins on a wire rack. Let cool completely before removing cupcakes.
  • Strawberry Frosting
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) reserved butter
  • In a large bowl, beat butter with an electric hand mixer until light and fluffy.
  • 1 cup whole strawberries
  • Wash and stem strawberries. In a blender or food processor, puree until smooth, about ¼ cup pureed. Add to bowl with creamed butter.
  • 4 cups powdered sugar (about 1 pound)
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • Add powdered sugar, lemon juice, and sea salt to bowl with butter and pureed strawberries. Using an electric hand mixer, beat first at a low speed to combine, and then increase speed to high and beat until very light and fluffy.
  • 8 to 16 whole strawberries, washed, stemmed, and cut into quarters, optional
  • Pipe or spread frosting onto cupcakes. Garnish with strawberry quarters as desired.
  • Cupcakes will keep in the fridge for up to three days.

MakeBetterFood.com  recipes are available under a Creative Commons License.            Cooked with love by  Kevin Conroy.