Baking | Strawberry Cupcakes + Strawberry Buttercream

Last week my mother came to me and asked if I would bake some cupcakes for her to bring into work. I absolutely love to bake - cupcakes especially - so I happily agreed. Over the next few days I debated what type of cupcakes to make. I was originally set on making a chocolate base with salted caramel buttercream frosting, then I thought maybe a dulce de leche cupcake would be quite nice. I asked my mom for some input and she suggested something fresh and fruity and then I knew exactly what to make.

Sometime ago I found a recipe for strawberry cupcakes on Pinterest, I pinned it to one of my boards and forgot about it until now. The recipe comes from Chop, Stir, Eat and was easy enough to make. The cake is light and fluffy with a touch of strawberry flavour. I got three dozen cupcakes out of this recipe, which was great as my mother needed 25 to bring to work (and that left me with eleven leftover to keep at home).

Nalena, from Chop, Stir, Eat has a recipe for a whipped frosting that she paired with the cupcakes that you can use. However, I wanted to create a strawberry buttercream to amp up the strawberry flavour.

On my first attempt at the frosting, I made a standard buttercream frosting that included a few tablespoons of whipping cream. Once I added in my pureed strawberries, the buttercream began to separate and had a very unappealing appearance and texture. I should've known not to mix cream with pureed berries. So, that went into the trash.

For my second batch of buttercream I followed a recipe from Cake 'n' Knife. The buttercream came out smooth and was a pretty, pink colour (and not to mention incredibly tasty)! I piped the frosting onto my cupcakes using a Wilton Open Star 1M tip (you can find this tip here).

The adorable cupcake liners I used were from an arts and craft store near my house. They may have been from Wilton but I'm not 100% sure. Also, they were Easter liners so they may not even be available for purchase anymore. The pearls I used on top of the cupcakes were Wilton Sugar Pearls. They come in a variety of beautiful colours. The next time I see them I think I'll pick up a tube of the green and yellow.

My mom came home from work and told me that the cupcakes were an absolute hit! One woman even went as far as to say it was the best cupcake she had ever eaten! If you try out this recipe please comment below. I'd love to know how they turned out for you! I hope you have enjoyed the first post on Honey-Loaf! Please check back soon for more posts!