A recipe for Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Meringue Buttercream. The perfect summer cupcake.
I usually have a “go-to” cookbook or two. I’m sure most of you know what I’m talking about. A cookbook (or website) you can go to and get a recipe to make that you know will turn out, because everything you’ve made from that book has been great. I actually have been making a lot of recipes from 2 cookbooks lately, and they are both Martha Stewart cookbooks. Every Day Food: Great Food Fast and her Cookie Book have both been very successful for me. So when I saw that she was coming out with a cupcake book – you better believe I’d be first in line!
I’m so glad I chose Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes as the Cookbook of the Month, because I can tell that I’m going to have tons of fun. In fact, I may even get ambitious and post more than one a week.
For my first try out of the book, I debated between these strawberry cupcakes and a rhubarb cupcake. Both ingredients in season, and I really had a hard time deciding. But the strawberry cupcakes won out, mainly because they look so impressive!
I’m so glad I chose this one, because they were delicious!! I did have a couple of issues along the way, though. First of all, I live at almost 4800 ft. elevation. I’ve never made alterations in my baking for elevation – things usually work out for me. But when I took the first pan of these out of the oven, I could tell things weren’t working correctly. They were falling in the middle and they baked way faster than the recipe said. So I went online and did a search for high elevation changes, just as an experiment. I went back and upped the temperature 25F, and baked the next pan for only about 15 minutes. And they came out perfectly! I guess I do need to start making high elevation changes…
The only other issue I had was that I got 44 cupcakes out of the recipe instead of the 34 that it claims. But that seems to happen to me a lot with cupcakes and cookies – I’m not sure why. So the recipe below says that you’ll probably get 40 – 44 cupcakes.
Please also note that the recipe does not include the high altitude changes I made.
Recipe Rating: 4.25 out of 5
Strawberry Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cake flour not self rising
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 1/4 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 large whole eggs plus 1 egg white
- 1 cup milk
- 2 cups finely chopped strawberries plus more for garnish
Strawberry Meringue Buttercream
- 1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries 8 ounces, rinsed, hulled, and coarsely chopped
- 4 large egg whites
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 cups 3 sticks butter, cut into tablespoons, at room temperature
Instructions
To make the cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Line standard muffin tins with paper lines.
- Sift together the flours, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- Put butter, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer. Cream on medium-high until pale and fluffy. Add the whole eggs and egg white, one at a time, beating until each is fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Change the speed to low, add the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the milk. Beat until well combined. Fold in the chopped strawberries by hand.
- Fill each paper liner with batter 3/4 full. Bake, rotating the pans half way through, until golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, 20 – 30 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool for 15 minutes, then turn cupcakes out onto rack to let cool completely.
- To finish, fill a pastry bag fitted with a large open-star tip with the buttercream. Pipe buttercream onto each cupcake, swirling tip and releasing as you pull up to form a peak. Just before serving, top each cupcake with a thinly sliced strawberry.
To make the buttercream:
- Puree strawberries in a food processor. Combine egg whites and sugar in the heatproof bowl of a standing electric mixer set over a pan of simmering water. Whisk constantly by hand until mixture is warm to the touch and sugar has dissolved (the mixture should feel completely smooth when rubbed between your fingertips).
- Attach the bowl to the mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Starting on low and gradually increasing to medium-high speed, mix until stiff (but not dry) peaks form. Continue mixing until the mixture is fluffy and glossy, and completely cool (test by touching the bottom of the bowl), about 10 minutes.
- With mixer on medium-low speed, add the butter a few tablespoons at a time, mixing well after each addition. Once all butter has been added, scrape down sides of bowl with a flexible spatula and switch to the paddle attachment; continue beating on low speed until all air bubbles are eliminated, about 2 minutes. Add strawberries and beat until combined. Stir with a flexible spatula until the frosting is smooth. Keep buttercream at room temperature if using the same day, or transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate up to 3 days or freeze up to 1 month. Before using, bring to room temperature and beat with paddle attachment on low speed until smooth again, about 5 minutes.
Ashley says
I altered this recipe using 1/2 c pureed strawberries with 1/2 cup of milk (skim – unfortunately..this was by accident) and 1, 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract + 1/4 teaspoon strawberry extract.
I think this is the best strawberry cake recipe that I’ve come by which uses all “real” ingredients (no strawberry nesquik or strawberry jello gelatin). I really liked my modifications but found that it could still use an extra strawberry “oomph”..maybe I should have used 1/2tsp. strawberry extract instead of just 1/4tsp, or upped the puree.
Also, not sure what could have caused this but my batter came out really thick..it was difficult for my kitchaid mixer to mix at some points, to where I had to do more, and quicker, batches of altering of the flour vs. milk content. As a result, the final product also came out sort of thick and floury tasting..once you get past the explosion of strawberry in your mouth.
All in all..it packs alot of strawberry taste, isn’t overly sweet, and is surprisingly silky smooth (not something I’ve come across before), so I will be using this recipe again. I think my small issue with the flour taste could be easily fixed. I’m no pro-baker though..so can someone help me out on this?
Deborah says
@Ashley, I remember my batter being a little thicker than, say a cake mix, but I don’t think mine was that thick. I’m not sure why yours was so thick, but I’m glad you liked the finished cupcakes. And I think the intensity of the strawberry flavor has a lot to do with how flavorful the strawberries are to start off with. My strawberries were just ok, but I cannot wait to try this again when strawberries are in season here. I think fresh, in season strawberries would make a big difference.
Deborah says
Rebecca,
I'm pretty sure it would work with a whipped cream topping. Let me know if you try it and how it turns out!
Rebecca says
Do you think this would be fine with whipped cream and a strawberry garnish instead of the buttercream icing?