Strawberry Cupcakes

These are my special Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes. They are filled with pastry cream, frosted with buttercream, topped with strawberry jelly and fresh strawberries.

So, yes my blog is named Pies and Tacos. I do post lots of pies, but not a whole lot of tacos. At least not as much as I should for a blog that has the word tacos in its name.

Anyway, when I first started my blog, I wasn’t completely sure of what direction it was going to take. And since I really love eating tacos, I thought I would be posting lots and lots of tacos. And I did post some, including some tortilla recipes too.

However, as things evolved, I started to find out more about myself, about my style, and what I really love photographing and writing about on my blog.

These Strawberry Cupcakes are, for example, the type of food I am crazy about making and photographing.

And that is probably due to the fact that I grew up in my grandma’s bakery, right down the street from my house, where I daily admired my baker grandma make amazing beautiful desserts, and breads, and display them in a beautiful case, for everyone in the neighborhood to take home and enjoy.

Anyway, through trial and error, I found out the things I like and don’t like making for my blog, regardless if I like eating them or not. I looooove salads, and you wouldn’t believe tofu is my main meal 3 times a week. But it’s just not the type of food I enjoy photographing and writing about.

I believe my art is deeply rooted in these sweet childhood memories of bakery cases, and beautiful pastries. And that is why my blog pretty much look like the case of my bakery, if I were to have one like my grandma’s.

So, maybe I will make some more tacos for the blog sometime soon. I make them on a regular basis for my family, because we love it. My son Luke and I always make tortillas together. He is (almost) 3 years old and you can see him baking with me in my instagram highlights.

For now, please keep enjoying my dessert and cupcake recipes. And now let’s talk about these Strawberry Cupcakes.

I do like better to call them Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes, but since SEO (search engine optimization) says that I will get more visits on my website if I name the recipe Strawberry Cupcakes instead, that is what I went with, because after all my goal is to reach as many people as possible!

I also made a video of these Strawberry Cupcakes being decorated.

So these Strawberry Cupcakes have a lot of steps, but you can skip some by, for example, using store-bought strawberry jelly, instead of making your own.

And check out that beautiful pastry cream that will fill out Strawberry Cupcakes.

Those are vanilla bean speckles, but you can use simply vanilla extract if that’s what you got at hand.

And I know you are dying to see the middle of these Strawberry Cupcakes. So here you go, a cross-section of the cupcakes.

Too good to be true!

I really hope you enjoyed today’s recipe. Make sure to check out some more of my Cupcake recipes, since (almost) every #cupcakemondays I post a new cupcake recipe.

Almost a year ago I posted my first cupcake recipe, and it was actually a Strawberry Cupcake recipe as well, but they were Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes.

You might also like these other cupcakes: Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes, Pomegranate Cupcakes, Grape Cupcakes, Almond Cupcakes.

Strawberry Cupcakes

These are my special Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes. They are filled with pastry cream, frosted with buttercream, topped with strawberry jelly and fresh strawberries.

5 from 5 votes

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Prep Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 18 cupcakes

Calories 400 kcal

Ingredients

  

Strawberry Cupcakes

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 6.75 oz, 191 grams
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature (4 oz, 113 grams)
• 1 cup granulated sugar 7.1 oz, 200 grams
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup strawberry puree
• 1/4 cup yogurt

Pastry Cream

• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar 1.7 oz, 50 grams
• 1/2 vanilla bean split and seeded or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Strawberry Jelly

• 1/3 cup granulated sugar or maple syrup
• 1/2 cup mashed, or pureed strawberries I like to process mine in the food processor, you will need about 8 ounces of strawberries to obtain 1/2 cup of puree
• 1 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/4 cup water

Buttercream

• 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature 226 grams, 8 oz
• 4 cups powdered sugar 510 grams 18 oz
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1-2 tablespoons of heavy cream if necessary

Instructions

 

Strawberry Cupcakes

• Pre-heat oven to 350F.
• Line 18 cupcake molds with a cupcake liner or grease them with butter and flour if they aren’t silicon. Set aside.
• Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
• In a mixer, cream butter for 1 minute. Add sugar and cream on high for another 2 minutes until mixture is very fluffy and whitened in color.
• Add eggs, one a time, waiting for the first egg to be incorporated before adding the next egg.
• Add vanilla. Mix to combine.
• Add strawberry puree, and yogurt.
• Mix until combined.
• Add dry mixture and fold with a spatula until incorporated. Don’t overmix.
• Pour evenly in the cupcake pans.
• Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating in between.
• Cupcakes will be done baking once you can gently poke the top of the cupcake with your finger and it will spring back.
• Set aside to cool.

Pastry Cream

• Whisk milk, half of the sugar, and the vanilla bean seeds (and you can add the pod in there too to help infuse the milk). If you aren’t using vanilla bean seeds, and using the vanilla extract instead, you want to wait to add it at the very end.
• Bring mixture almost to a boil. Turn the heat off. Let it infuse for about 20 minutes. (If not using vanilla beans, skip this step.)
• If you let your milk mixture infuse, you want to quickly re-heat it for just a little bit before proceeding.
• Whisk egg yolks, plus half of the sugar, cornstarch, and flour in a bowl.
• Whisk until mixture is very lightened in color, and a bit runny.
• Add a couple of tablespoons of the hot milk to egg yolks, while whisking non-stop.
• Add another couple of tablespoons. Keep doing this while you whisk the mixture. You are tempering the eggs, and avoiding them to cook, by slowly raising the temperature.
• At the end you can just pour the rest of the milk in.
• Put mixture back in the pot where you heated the milk, and make sure to strain it before, so you can catch any bits of eggs that may have cooked.
• Then, use a spatula or wooden spoon to stir your custard over medium heat. Don’t stop stirring, don’t look away, you don’t want it to overcook.
• Keep cooking and stirring until it starts to get kind of grainy, and then it will start to get really thick and smooth. When the whole mixture is creamy, smooth, and thick, you can turn the heat off.
• Add butter and mix until melted and incorporated.
• Transfer mixture to a heat-proof bowl. Let it sit for about 10 minutes and then add the vanilla extract if that’s what you are using.
• Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the cream. Place it in the fridge until completely cooled down.

Strawberry Jelly

• Place strawberries, and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly, and let it boil for 5-10 minutes. If the mixture is getting too thick, add a tablespoon of water or so.
• Let mixture cook down, regulate the heat to keep it at a gentle simmer.
• Once mixture has cooked down and it’s syrupy and the sugar has melted, you can dissolve the cornstarch in water and add that to the strawberry mixture, stirring and cooking over medium heat.
• Let mixture simmer and get thick, for about 10 minutes.
• Remove and let mixture cool down in the fridge all the way before using it.

Buttercream

• Cream butter in the bowl of a mixer, at medium-high speed for 2 minutes.
• Turn mixer off. Add sugar. Mix on low until sugar is incorporated.
• Cream for another 1 minute.
• Add vanilla and mix to combine. If texture is too stiff, add the heavy cream. Otherwise, it’s ready to pipe.
• Place frosting in a bag lined with your favorite tip.

To assemble

• Remove the center of each cupcake with a spoon.
• Pipe some of the Buttercream Frosting around the edges of the cupcake, leaving the middle and the hole in the center of the cupcakes open.
• Now place the pastry cream in a piping bag and pipe some in the middle of the cupcake all the way to the top of the frosting.
• Alternatively you can do this with a spoon.
• Then, spoon a tiny bit of strawberry jelly on top of pastry cream.
• Top with chopped fresh strawberries, and I also used a little mint leaf to decorate the top.

Storage

• Cupcakes will keep for up to 3-4 days in a closed container, in the fridge.

Keyword cupcakes, strawberry