A few years ago, I modified a strawberry cupcakes recipe that started with white cake mix.  They were really good!  But then I lost the recipe.  Recently, my friend Kim found it but in the meantime we’d decided to do a comparison of several recipes and decide which one we liked best.  This recipe is different from most strawberry cake or cupcakes in that it truly tastes like fresh strawberries.  It’s basically a really moist yellow cake with fresh strawberries folded into the batter.  I pulsed the strawberries in the food processor a few times (instead of chopping them) and was happy with the results.  I did not top them with strawberry frosting.  I used my regular buttercream and just added a little pink coloring to it.  I actually planned to add a small amount of pureed strawberries to it and a few slices on top but I ran out of strawberries.  This was okay though because I don’t usually care for frosting that is the same flavor as the cake unless it’s vanilla on vanilla. 🙂

Stay tuned for the next recipe test!

Strawberry Cupcakes

Yield: about 18 cupcakes

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups cake flour
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
½ cup unsalted butter
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk
¼ cup oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups chopped strawberries

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°.  Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

Sift flour, salt and baking soda into a medium bowl.  Set aside.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time until combined.  Add buttermilk, oil and vanilla and beat until combined.  Add flour mixture and stir until just combined.  Fold in chopped strawberries.  Fill cupcake wells ¾ full with batter.  Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.

From: Annie’s Eats