Strawberry Cupcakes with a Strawberry Glaze

What a beautiful weekend!  The sun is shining and spring is here.  What a great time of year,  people remove from winter hibernation and you start to remember what your neighbours looked liked.    It's a time for refreshing jogs, long walks and kids playing at the park.    Flowers start to come up and for a few weeks you don't have to fight to keep your grass alive.   Beautiful!  Here's another cupcake to welcome spring and a bright and sweet Mother's day treat.   Happy Mother's Day!

Adapted from the mother of mothers - Martha Stewart

Makes about 15

INGREDIENTS:

Cupcakes

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/2 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 1 cup fresh strawberries plus 8 additional for topping the cupcakes

 Glaze

• 2 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp skim milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup fresh strawberries (in addition to the above)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Preheat the oven to 350F or 325F convection.  Line muffin tins with paper liners. 

2) Wash, cut of the stems and halve the strawberries.  Place them in your mini chopper or blender, give a few pulses to macerate and chop the berries. 

3) In medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. 

4) In your mixer bowl or a large bowl beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla until creamy and fluffy.  Add eggs beating until just incorporated.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl. 

5) Add the flour in two batches with the addition of the milk in between, mixing until each is just combined. 

6) Fold in the strawberries by hand with a spatula. 

7) Divide the batter evenly amoung the cups, I use about 1/3 cup scoop.    Bake for 25-30 minutes, rotating tin half way if you are not using convection.  A toothpick should come out clean.   

8) Let tin cool on a rack for 10 minutes then remove cupcakes and let cool completely.  Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

Strawberry Glaze

1) Wash, cut of the stems and halve the remaining strawberries.  Place them in your mini chopper or blender, pulse a lot to finely finely chop the berries. 

2) Whisk together all the glaze ingredients, adjusting with additional sugar or milk as needed to your desired consistency. Spoon it over each cupcake.

  

Light, fluffy, sticky and sweet.   These cupcakes are all kinds of strawberry goodness.  A cute simple dessert for mom or your next summer BBQ.


Note:If you would prefera buttercream or cream cheese icing over the glaze, check out the follow recipes :  Buttercream icing - replace the chocolate with the strawberries in the icing portion above or try the Cream cheese icing - reduce the recipe by half and add the strawberries in the icing recipe above or use strawberry cream cheese.


MEG's RATING: D-EEE-LICIOUS