Typically, when my family gets together, I am in charge of making dessert. I love to bake and decorate cookies and cakes, so it is always a lot of fun for me to come up with new things to make. For Easter, in addition to the cookies I posted yesterday, I made strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese icing.
I was inspired to make strawberry cupcakes for Easter when I saw these Strawberry-rific Cupcakes from Calm in the Kitchen. In fact, I liked the post so much that it made it into my Friday Favorites last week. To make my cupcakes, I used the cupcake recipe from Calm in the Kitchen, but I made my own strawberry filling and cream cheese icing. The icing on the original recipe looked delicious. I was making the cupcakes a day in advance, though, and I wanted to be sure that the piped icing would hold its shape overnight. I have bad luck when it comes to fruit and icing, so I thought it would be best to separate the strawberries out into a separate filling and leave the cream cheese icing fruit-free.
Overall, I was really happy with how the cupcakes turned out. The strawberry cupcakes were very moist and delicious. I wasn’t able to get as much filling into each cupcake as I would have liked – it kept squirting out the tops. I was able to smooth it down with a spoon and top it with the cream cheese icing and no one ever knew. Since I had some left over, I used the extra filling to garnish the plate!
To make these cupcakes – please refer to the cupcake recipe @ Calm in the Kitchen.
Strawberry Filling:
- 1 cup strawberry puree (refer to cupcake recipe, but make extra puree)
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
Whisk together the corn starch and water. Add the mixture to the strawberry puree, and stir in the powdered sugar. Bring to a bubble in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat. Cook for 2 minutes, then remove from heat and allow to cool. Chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to allow the mixture to thicken.
Cream Cheese Icing:
- 8 ounces reduced fat cream cheese, softened
- 2 ounces unsalted butter (1/2 stick), softened
- 1/4 cup shortening
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 6 cups powdered sugar
In the mixing bowl of a stand mixer, combine the cream cheese, butter, shortening, and vanilla and whip together until a light creamy mixture forms. Gradually add the powdered sugar one cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Once all of the sugar has been added, mix on medium-high for 5 minutes.
Finishing the Cupcakes:
Once the cupcakes have cooled, fill a pastry bag (or a squeeze bottle would work fine) with the strawberry filling. Use a round tip to pipe a small amount of the filling into the center of each cupcake. Use a spoon to smooth the filling down into the cupcake, if necessary.
Once the cupcakes are filled, fill another pastry bag with the cream cheese icing, fitting the bag with a large star tip. Pipe some the icing onto the tops of the cupcakes, concealing the strawberry filling.
If desired, serve with additional strawberry filling to garnish the plate.
Yummmm…those look delicious! The icing looks perfect.
I love your cream cheese frosting. I am always trying to find better “stiff” recipes. I am going to try yours!
Thank you for using my cupcake recipe! I am so very honored.
;) amy
Yum! They look absolutely delicious. will have to make some this week and try them myself!
Those cupcakes look way too good to eat. Delish!!
Wow, they look so perfect. You did a fab job!
Who doesn’t love strawberries?!? Your cupcakes, and your photos, look amazing. Great job!
delicious cupcakes! and I love your photos too :)
Gorgeous Cupcakes! I too am thrilled about the cream cheese frosting, as I’ve foundd it extremely hard to find a true pipe-able (is that even a word?) CC frosting, I’m going to bookmark this.
To fill cupcakes I’ve had good luck using a 230 tip because its slim and long (which came in handy when I had to do 100 at once!), you can really insert it deep into the middle of the cupcake. Can’t wait until strawberries come into season soon, want to try this out!
Thanks everyone for the comments!
Kris – thanks for the suggestion on the tip – I will give that a try next time!
Hello,
Those Cupcakes look delicious! Thanks for sharing these!
What tip did you use to frost the cupcakes?
Thanks!!
Thanks for the strawberry filling recipe. I’ll be using it for a little girl’s birthday party. Is the filling runny or pretty firm inside the cupcake? I’ll be traveling with them and don’t want it to make the cupcakes soggy.
Thanks in advance for your response!
Karen – The filling is pretty firm and I believe it will hold up fairly well. I made these cupcakes for a family get together and assembled them the night before, and they were fine the next day.