Last week I made some cupcakes for my brother’s birthday.  I wanted something easy but yummy.  Its summer time and what better time to have fresh berries.  I decided to make strawberry red velvet cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese icing.  You will need the basic red velvet cupcake recipe found here. https://eatitnoworeatitlater.com/2013/02/16/red-velvet-cupcakes/

If you can find strawberry puree, you can use it instead of making it.  To make a puree,  you can either use fresh or frozen strawberries.   I used frozen.  All you need to do is simmer the berries on low until it forms a thick paste.  It might take 30 minutes.  Don’t add sugar as there is plenty in the cupcake.  You want to make about a cup of paste. This means your will need to start off with 2 cups of strawberries.

To prepare the batter, dice strawberries into tiny chunks. I make mini cupcakes so they pieces need to be tiny.

Make the red velvet batter. I added 1 more tsp of cocoa powder.  What goes better with strawberries than chocolate.  Add a tablespoon of your strawberry paste.  Add your chopped strawberries. I added about 2 cups of chopped strawberries. You can add more if you like.

Add the remaining bit of strawberry paste to the icing. It is important that you add a paste as you don’t want the icing to be too runny. If it is too runny, you will need to add more icing sugar.  The strawberry paste gives the icing a nice pink color.

Finally decorate your strawberry cupcakes with slices of strawberry hearts.  To prevent mold growing on your strawberries, soak them in some vinegar water for about 15-30 minutes.  I didn’t do that and my cupcakes started getting mold on the 4th day in the fridge.

To cut the strawberries into hearts, cut out a V shape at the top.  Slice the strawberry 90 degrees from V cut.  To make the cupcake extra special you can add tiny sprinkles before adding the strawberry.

Enjoy the strawberry goodness.

For more cupcake recipes:  https://eatitnoworeatitlater.com/recipe-list/