Savoring Spoon

These cupcakes were for a dear mentor’s baby shower. She is having a baby girl soon, and I’m so excited for her. A lot of my friends have had babies in the last few years and I’ve wanted to make baby girl cupcakes for them, but the timing and location of the shower has not fallen into place until this time. I was super excited to try these edible paper butterflies and do a strawberry themed cupcake.

The cupcakes have a strawberry puree filling and are vanilla flavored. There is a vanilla bean in the cupcake which is sort of optional but I think it tastes and looks better with the bean included (you can see the little black bean dots). The frosting is a cream cheese base with half of it strawberry flavored. Full details on how to do the swirl frosting is in the recipe. It is sort of a pain to get the frosting looking even but is completely worth it and makes for a better tasting cupcake.

Enjoy!

Strawberry Swirl Cupcakes

vanilla bean cupcakes with strawberry and cream cheese frosting, and strawberry center

Print Recipe

Servings 18 people

Ingredients

Cupcake

310 grams cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 plus 1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter room temp
300 grams granulated sugar
5 egg white medium eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 bean vanilla bean seeds
3/4 cup sour cream full fat room temp
3/4 cup whole milk room temp

Frosting

6 ounces cream cheese full fat room temp
1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter room temp
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk
1 cup freeze dried strawberry powder

Filling

1 cup water
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1.25 cup frozen strawberries, thawed and diced
1 cup granulated sugar

Instructions

Filling

I like to start by making filling, because it needs time to cool and has the largest room for error/need to re-make.
Thaw 1.25 cups of frozen strawberries then dice the strawberries to small pieces
Add 1 cup water to a saucepan. Add in 4 tablespoons cornstarch and stir until completely mixed. Add strawberries and 1 cup sugar.
Bring mixer to boil over medium heat about 10 minutes, stirring the entire time. If not thick enough you can add more cornstarch slurry (mix cornstarch with water before adding in) but be careful too much cornstarch will have a strange starchy taste. You may also want to add more sugar if you want a sweeter taste.
Cool completely before use, usually the entire time it takes you to make cupcakes and frosting. You'll end up with more filling than you will actually use. It is ok. Eat it on bread later.

Cupcake

Adjust oven shelves so center shelf is available. Preheat oven to 350F and line a 12 cup cupcake pan with cupcake liners. If you have two pans you can line one full pan and another pan with six. Otherwise bake separately.
Sift cake flour then add in baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Keep separate in a medium bowl. Separate egg yolk and whites and save the whites in a separate bowl. You can eat the yolks for breakfast or use them to make creme brulee later!
Cream butter on high for 1-2 minutes until smooth using a hand or stand mixer. Add sugar and cream 2 additional minutes. Scrape to the bottom of the mixing bowl and add egg whites, vanilla extract, vanilla bean and cream additional 2 minutes. Add in sour cream, then dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Pour in milk and mix until just incorporated. Whisk by hand if needed, don't over-mix.
Spoon batter to fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for 22 minutes, until knife in the center comes out clean. Cool 5 min, then transfer to wire rack for full cooling.

Frosting

In a food processor, blender, or veggie chop, grind 1 cup freeze-dried strawberries until it is powder. If you use a veggie chop like me you will have a few clumps at the end. Sift the powder through a fine sieve so any remaining clump is gone. You can also sift directly into the frosting later.
Beat cream cheese in a hand/stand mixer until whipped using the paddle attachment. Add butter and whip until fluffy for 2 minutes. Add powdered sugar slowly and continue to whip till mixed. Add vanilla extract, then add milk till desired consistency. You may not use all the milk.
Separate the frosting into two halves. One you will leave plain like this for the white part of the swirl. The other you will add in about 3-4 tablespoons strawberry powder and beat until it is well mixed. Adjust to your desired level of pinkness and strawberry taste.

Assembly

Using a knife, a cupcake corer, or a round piping tip, cut out the centers of all your cupcakes. Add filling so it is flush with the top.
Take one large frosting bag and cut off the tip. Insert your largest bore round tip. Fill two frosting bags (WITH THE TIP NOT CUT OFF), one with white frosting and one with pink frosting.
Snip the tips off the pink and white frosting bags while they are laying flat on the table.
Put the pink and white frosting bags side by side inside the big frosting bag with the round tip. When touching the bags, touch the top not the bottom where the frosting is. Try to put the pink and white bags the same level. I do it while holding the big bag vertical and drop the other two in. You can also try it laying on a table.
Tie off the top of the big frosting bag with a rubber band and squeeze gently to get the frosting to fill the metal tip.
Frost your cupcakes and add decoration on top as you please.

Notes

This recipe is an adapted hodge-podge of many recipes. The strawberry base is from Sally’s Baking Addiction Simply Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes. The frosting is from Half-Baked Harvest Double Strawberry Cupcakes. The filling is from All-Recipes Strawberry Cake Filling.

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