Strawberry Milkshake Cupcakes

These delectable cupcakes are light, fluffy, and taste like early summer. A simple strawberry buttercream frosting, applied either sparingly or liberally to taste, provides added zest to this fun cupcake recipe.

Desserts

Prep: 35 min
Cook: 25 min
Total: 1 hour
Yields 24 cupcakes

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 ⅓ 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 ⅓ of reserved dry flour mixture to butter mixture and blend until just combined. Add ⅓ 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.

From MakeBetterFood.com. May 17, 2016. (makebetterfood.com/recipes/strawberry-milkshake-cupcakes/). Adapted from Day, Cheryl. Back in the Day Cafe Cookbook. (Workman Publishing, New York). p 77-78.