Fresh Strawberry Dream Cupcakes with Fresh Strawberry Buttercream

Today was a big day, not only was it my mama's birthday (Love you mom!) a co-workers babyshower, its also my blog anniversary. I started my little blog last year to share my love of food with anyone else who was willing to stop by and listen. I've met a lot of amazing people through blogging and been inspired to keep making new and fun dishes to share. I'm pretty proud of myself to actually stick with this project for the last year, I thought I might give it up or work would be too busy and I would have to  stop blogging after a few months, but honestly I would always find myself searching, thinking and creating the next recipe I was going to make and share. 

 Everyone in my office believes that these are the best cupcakes I've made so far, I actually saw one of my friends eat 3 cupcakes in 20 minutes, he said they were that good. I tell you the fresh strawberries combined with the delicious creamy buttercream is a dynamite combo.  It was seriously hard to resist eating the batter and buttercream by the spoonfuls while making these, but I made it through with just the wee tiny amount of batter and buttercream missing from the bowl ;) seriously though if you want to try a fruit cupcake you need to make these. The cake part is moist and not to sweet and loaded with fresh strawberries, the buttercream is velvety and creamy with the help of strawberry milk......

So good!

The BEST EVER strawberries I have ever eaten, there is something
special about the soil in Japan. 

Fresh Strawberry Dream Cupcakes with Fresh Strawberry Buttercream
Adapted from Brown Eyes Baker

Yields: 36 cupcakes

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temp
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 egg white
1 cup 2% milk
2 cups fresh finely diced strawberries

Directions

- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line your cupcake pans with paper liners.
- In a medium bowl combined your flour, cake flour, baking powder and salt, whisk together and set aside.
- In a electric mixer on medium high speed, cream together the butter and sugar, until light and fluffy about 3-5 minutes.
- Add in your extract and Add in the eggs one at a time, mixing each egg in with the butter and sugar completely before adding the next egg.
- Reduce your speed to low and add in the milk and flour ingredients in 2 batches starting with the flour and alternating with the milk, mix until combined.
- Fold in your diced strawberries in the batter with a spatula and using a large spoon or ice cream scoop fill your paper lines 3/4 full.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Fresh Strawberry Buttercream
Oishii treats

Ingredients

1 cup strawberry milk, I used nesquick
5 tablespoons flour
1 cup butter, at room temp
1 cup sugar (not powdered)
1 cup diced finely, strawberries

Directions

- Using a small stove top pot add in your strawberry milk and place heat on high, add in your flour and whisk until the mixture starts to thicken, about 2-3 minutes.
- Keep whisking the mixture for another 1-2 minutes until its thick and has the consistency of pancake batter or cake batter. Remove from heat and immediately transfer the mixture to a ramekin or bowl and let cool to room temp. Takes about 30-40 minutes.

- In a electric mixture beat the butter and sugar together for 7-8 minutes on high, the mixture should be white and fluffy. Beating the butter and sugar together for this amount of time will help the sugar dissolve better.

- Add in your cooled milk mixture and whip on high for another 4-5 minutes, the sugar should almost if not be basically dissolved. If it is still slightly grainy the sugar should still dissolve the rest of the way when you pipe it on the cupcake.

- Fold in your diced strawberries and using a pipping bag with a large tip, pipe onto your cupcakes. They will keep for 1-2 days in a air tight container.

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