How hot has it been where you live this summer? Here on the mid-Atlantic coast, we’ve been sweltering for what feels like forever. And when it’s hot, I just can’t always bring myself to turn on the oven and bake anything. But yesterday we got rain! Beautiful, beautiful rain. And so on went the oven and boom went the treats. Since it’ll be warm again tomorrow (and what feels like on until infinity) I wanted to make something not too heavy that would go great with an outdoor dinner picnic, and so these strawberry lemonade cupcakes were born! They are a delicate mix of tart and sweet, and a perfect dessert fit for those long summer nights!
The first time I wanted to make a strawberry cupcake, I popped online just like you’re doing now to search for a good recipe. They all seemed to use either strawberry gelatin (which gives the cupcake most of its sweetness) or frozen strawberries (which make it a true ‘strawberry’ recipe but don’t really lend it a cake-sweet flavor). I decided to split the difference and use some of both. But because we have beautiful farms in this area, I used fresh strawberries. I really encourage you to use fresh as well- your house will smell wonderful and your cupcakes will be wonderfully moist. Before we get to the recipe, there’s just a few things that I want to point out that will help give you a great result.
Sweetened Strawberry Puree
Strawberries are the cornerstone of this recipe, so grab the nicest looking fresh berries that you can get your hands on! We’re going to make the perfect fresh strawberry mixture to fold into your cake batter. You want to have 3/4 cup of finished strawberry puree, which is about 12 large strawberries. (Revisit my summer strawberry shortcake post here for a neat trick to help you hull your strawberries quickly.) Pulse them in a blender or food processor with 1/2 tablespoon of granulated sugar to sweeten the mixture before adding it to the bowl.
Filling the Cupcake Liner
We all know the drill when it comes to filling a cupcake wrapper before baking- only go to 2/3rds full or you’re gonna have an overflowing mess, right? These cupcakes are a little different. Because they’re denser, you should fill them higher so that they have a pleasing shape after they’ve baked. Cupcakes that don’t even bake to the top of the wrapper can look a bit sad, in my opinion! I find that filling them about 1/2″ from the top of the wrapper will have them right where I want them to be (check the picture above to see my before and after!). They might look a little extra rounded when they first come out of the oven, but they’ll settle a bit as they cool.
Coloring the Frosting
This lemonade frosting is naturally a very pale yellow, so you’ll need to grab your gel colors (my favorites are available here on Amazon) to make this one pop! I used a few drops of Deep Pink on half of my frosting, and- appropriately!- a few drops of Lemon Yellow for the other half. Just like when you use them in royal icing, these colors tend to darken after you use them, so don’t go too crazy trying to achieve the perfect shade while the frosting is still in the bowl. It’ll be delicious no matter what!
Swirling the Frosting
This is my favorite part of this cupcake! If you’ve never done this technique, get ready to learn! Making multicolored frosting is much easier than you might think. After you’ve tinted your frosting, split it into piping bags, one for each color (no piping tips needed) and snip off the end of the bags. Now lay a piece of plastic wrap on your counter. Pipe thick lines of icing onto the plastic wrap (image 1) and then wrap the plastic around it like a sausage (image 2). Twist the ends shut. Now grab a large piping bag tipped with a 1M (large star) tip. Feed the end of the frosting ‘sausage’ into the bag by pulling on the twisted plastic end and then snip the plastic once you’ve gotten it through (image 3). It’s ready to go! As you frost, turn your wrist as you go around in circles if you want to vary where the colors end up (image 4).
With all that said, let’s get our strawberry lemonade on! Summer waits for no baker!
Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes
Ingredients
Strawberry Cupcakes
- 1 cup butter salted
- 1 pkg strawberry Jell-O powder (3 oz)
- 1 3/4 cups sugar granulated
- 4 eggs, separated
- 2 3/4 cups cake flour sifted
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup milk
- 3/4 cup sweetened strawberry puree
- 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
Lemonade Frosting
- 1 cup butter salted
- 6 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 Tbsp lemon zest
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 2 lemons, for garnish
Instructions
Strawberry Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350 and line cupcake pan with paper wrappers.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter, Jell-O powder, and sugar until well combined. Set aside.
- Separate eggs into two bowls, reserving the whites for later. Add all four yolks to the Jell-O mixture and mix on medium speed until fully combined. Set aside again.
- In a medium bowl, sift your cake flour. This is very important! Sift the flour into a bowl, then carefully spoon it into measuring cups. Measure 2 3/4 cups of sifted flour into a large bowl, and add in the baking powder.
- Add half of the flour mixture to your Jell-O bowl, and mix until combined. Add half the milk and mix again, then repeat until both bowls are combined.
- Make your strawberry puree by pulsing 12-15 hulled strawberries in a blender of food processor with 1/2 Tbsp of sugar. Add to the batter.
- Add vanilla extract and mix well.
- Whip the reserved egg whites until soft peaks form, and then gently fold them into the batter.
- Fill the cupcake wrappers to about 1/2" from the top and bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
- Allow cupcakes to cool fully on a baking rack before frosting.
Lemonade Frosting
- Combine the butter and lemon juice in a bowl and mix until combined.
- Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Add the lemon zest and beat the frosting until light and fluffy, or desired consistency.
And there you have it! The best strawberry lemonade cupcake of all time! If you have any thoughts or questions, make sure to pop them into the comments box below and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Keep on enjoying summer, stay cool if you can, and happy baking!
