Strawberry Cupcakes

These are a favorite of mine, let me start with that. You have two options to which you can choose your demise. A) Normal size cupcakes. You will be tempted to eat two. B) Mini cupcakes that you can't stop popping in your mouth. My husband claims they are bite size and will eat 10 in a row. I find them to be 2-3 bites. Either way, they are ridiculously good and hard to turn down. I prefer the minis but they work just find in standard size as well. There are a little hard to make in the winter because it isn't strawberry season, but most stores carry limited quantities and you only need one small carton to make the cupcakes. I got the recipe from Martha and have made a few changes. But as you know, Martha is the shiznit...and does not require much altering. Enjoy!!!

You will need:

• 2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cake flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 1/4 cups sugar (yeah, I know they're bad)
• 3 large eggs plus one egg white
• 1 cup milk
• 2 1/2 cups finely chopped strawberries (pieces should be the size of a large pea to give you an idea)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line either standard muffin tins or mini muffin tins with paper liners.
2. Sift together both flours, baking soda and salt.
3. With electric mixer, cream butter (room temp), sugar, and vanilla until well mixed. (1-2 min)
4. On medium to high speed, add eggs and egg white one at a time while scrapping down sides of the bowl as needed.
5. Reduce mixer speed to low and add in flour mixture in two batches, alternating with milk. Beat until well-combined. Add in veggie oil and mix well.
6. Fold in chopped berries by hand. (The batter is a little thicker than normal cake batter, so don't worry.)
7. Divide batter among cups and fill 3/4 full.
8. If using standard cups, bake 25-30 minutes rotating half way through. Bake until toothpick comes out clean, but don't over bake...they can get dry easily. If using mini cups, bake 10-12 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.


Cream Cheese Frosting:

You will need:

• two sticks (one cup) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 12 oz cream cheese
• 3 1/2 - 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions: 

1. With electric mixer on medium/high speed, beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy and well combined.
2. Reduce speed to low and add sugar a cup at a time.
3. Add vanilla and mix well.
4. Pipe onto your yummy little cupcakes!

You will love these, I promise. I forgot to take a picture after adding the frosting, but here are the sugar babies before they received their creamy topping.