Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Girls are crazy.
I am sure you agree.

 If you're a boy, you think girls are crazy because they are sometimes cute and flirty and then frustrating and psycho.

If you are a girl, you understand that only girls stay up until midnight waiting for a roommate to get home so you can all scream about her impending engagement and immediately start online shopping for bridesmaids dresses, even if it is 1:30am.
This is of course purely hypothetical. I was absolutely not up until the wee hours of the morning discussing lace dresses and problematic busts. That would be just crazy.

Anyway... these cupcakes are my new baby. They are practically perfect, at least taste wise. They don't look quite as wonderful as they should, but I will work on that next time. If you have some lemons and strawberries lying around you should probably make these. If you don't have said items, you should definitely go buy some and then make these.

And then share them, because people will like you if you do. This recipe made enough to feed- my roommates + a boyfriend, my neighbor and her niece and nephew, 3 of my coworkers, the lucky person who happened to walk by my desk, my new favorite belay partner, and the 5 boys next door. If you do the math, that's 17 people who should technically be my new best friends.

Love,

Wendy

Continue for recipe

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes (adapted from howseeteats.com)

makes 12 cupcakes + 15 or so mini cupcakes

1 cup sugar

6 tablespoons butter

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ cup milk

grated zest of two lemons

¼ - ½ cup freshly diced strawberries, your preference

¼ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Very lightly spray cooking spray in paper liners.

Cream butter, sugar, and eggs together until fluffy. Add vanilla and lemon zest.

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Add half of the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Add the milk. Once mixed, add remaining dry ingredients. Gently fold in diced strawberries until just combined.

Pour into cupcake lines and bake for 20-25 mins at 350. While still hot, pour a teaspoon or so of lemon juice on each cupcake. Let cool, then frost.

I tested 2 different frostings for this creation. They both got positive results from my tasters, the cream cheese based one is more tart, the buttercream more sweet. Take your pick!

Cream Cheese Frosting (adapted from annie-eats.net)
½  cup fresh strawberries, roughly chopped

6 oz cream cheese, at room temperature

9 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1 ½ teaspoons lemon juice     

2 teaspoons lemon zest

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Puree the strawberries in a food processor or blender.   Beat the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and very fluffy, about 5 minutes.  Add the powdered sugar and mix until smooth.  Add the lemon juice, zest and vanilla extract and mix until incorporated.  Mix in strawberry puree, a tablespoon at a time, until you achieve your desired texture and flavor of frosting.

Buttercream Goodness (adapted from howsweeteats.com)

8 Tablespoons butter, at room temperature

1 cup of powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 -1/2 cup chopped strawberries

grated zest of a lemon

dash of fresh lemon juice

In the bowl of your electric mixer, cream butter until smooth. Add in powdered sugar slowly with the mixer on low, increasing to combine. Add in vanilla extract, lemon zest and juice. Add 1/4 cup of the berries and turn the mixer on high, scraping down the sides as you go.