Strawberry Cream Cheese Cupcakes
Strawberry cream cheese cupcakes made from scratch with real strawberries and zero food coloring are perfect for Valentine’s Day, birthday parties and baby showers. Topped with strawberry cream cheese frosting, these fluffy pink cupcakes are packed with strawberry flavor.
These strawberry flavored cupcakes taste like real strawberries because they are made with real strawberries.
The light pink color comes from freeze-dried strawberries as well as fresh strawberries, not food coloring, so they are perfect for those looking for a strawberry cupcake from scratch with no artificial coloring or dye.
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strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
Making these strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese icing took three attempts.
I don’t mind telling you the first try was not at all what I was going for and thus declared a failure. A delicious failure, but the texture was all wrong.
The second crack at it yielded a much closer result, and I thought it was good enough, but who really wants a cupcake that’s just “good enough”?
So, I set out the ingredients one more time to make the perfect strawberry cream cheese cupcakes with real strawberry flavor.
The cupcakes had to be bursting with strawberry flavor, they couldn’t just be cupcakes with strawberries in them.
I also wanted them to be a beautiful pink color, but that color could not be artificial. This is harder than you might think.
Using freeze-dried strawberries, like I did when I made strawberry cream cheese frosting did the trick.
I put the freeze-dried strawberries into a mini food processor and ground them up into a powder.
That powder turned the cupcake batter a beautiful pink color without having to use food coloring.
how to make strawberry cream cheese cupcakes
Making a strawberry cream cheese cupcake from scratch is just like making any other cupcake.
Cream the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy. The goal is to incorporate air into the mixture. The cream cheese gets added in with the butter before adding the egg.
Sift dry ingredients together into a separate bowl, measure out the milk and set it aside.
Add the strawberry powder into the cream cheese and butter mixture. Add half of the dry ingredients, then milk and end with the rest of the flour mixture.
In order to keep the strawberry cheesecake cupcakes from overflowing, fill them only two-thirds full.
You can top these delightfully pink cupcakes with any frosting or icing that you like.
The strawberry cream cheese frosting goes perfectly with them, but honestly, any frosting or no frosting at all, these cupcakes are delicious.
The cupcakes freeze well, so if you only need a few, you can freeze the rest for another day.
strawberry cream cheese cupcakes
These would be the perfect simple gender reveal cupcakes for a baby shower or strawberry birthday cupcakes for any age.
Valentine’s Day would also be a great occasion to serve these fluffy pink beauties. Mother’s day would be another holiday that would be fitting for these sweet pink treats.
A swirl of fluffy pink cream cheese frosting atop delicious strawberry cupcakes are the perfect treat for any occasion or no occasion!
More strawberry recipes we love
If you love strawberries as much as we do, here are a few recipes that I think you’ll love too!
- strawberry lemonade iced tea
- strawberry cream cheese icing
- strawberry sangria
- strawberry daiquiris
- strawberry no bake cheesecake bars
- strawberry spritzer
- strawberry limeade
- strawberry key lime jam
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Strawberry Cream Cheese Cupcakes
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cake flour
- 1/2 tsp. sea salt
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 6 tbsp. unsalted butter room temp
- 2 ounces cream cheese room temp
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup dried strawberry measure after grinding to powder
- 1/3 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup fresh strawberries diced
- Strawberry cream cheese frosting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a cupcake pan (muffin pan) with 12 cupcake liners.
- Using a food processor, grind freeze-dried strawberries into a fine powder, measure 1/3 cup strawberry powder and set aside.
- Sift flours, salt and baking powder into a small bowl and set aside.
- Cream butter, cream cheese and sugar together for 5 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Add strawberry powder and beat until uniform.
- Add egg, beat until fully incorporated. Then add vanilla and beat to combine again.
- Add 1/2 of the flour, beat just until flour is mostly mixed in, then add milk and beat until milk is incorporated. Add remaining flour and mix just until you no longer see big pockets of flour.
- Using a rubber spatula, fold in fresh strawberries, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl. Fold the batter a few times to make sure everything is incorporated.
- Fill cupcake papers 2/3 full and bake for 16 – 18 minutes, or when tester comes out with a few moist crumbs on it.
- Remove from oven and let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
- Frost cupcakes after they have cooled completely.
Notes
Nutrition
Thanks for stopping by! Have a delicious day 🙂
I made these beauties for our kid’s school valentines party and they were a hit! I used mini muffin tins since I knew there were going to be other desserts there and ended up with 33 beautiful mini cupcakes! I think I remember taking them out of the oven after 12 minutes of baking. I couldn’t add the freeze dried strawberries to the cake batter only because I didn’t have enough; at our HEB they only have them mixed with banana so I separated them from 7 bags and after grinding, I only ended up with half a cup! That was disappointing but next time I’ll just order a bag!
So in a pinch, I decided the frosting needed it more. But they turned out great! The fresh lemon juice was a brilliant idea as I believe it really complimented the strawberry flavor! 💛
I had leftover frosting so I put it in a bowl and served it with fresh fruit to dip! Yum!! I let them sit out of the fridge but covered 45 minutes before serving to make sure the frosting was soft. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe! 💗
Audra! Thank you SO MUCH for such a lovely comment and FANTASTIC info about making them minis! I’m so happy that everyone enjoyed them!! <3 I really appreciate you taking the time to comment. <3