Fresh Strawberry Buttercream Cupcakes
These Fresh Strawberry Buttercream Cupcakes are the perfect dessert for a bridal shower or ladies’ night, and are a nice, lighter alternative to a dense chocolate cake. This is one of my favorite cupcakes!
Have you noticed all the fresh strawberries flooding the grocery stores over the past few weeks?
I’ve been buying so many cartons that I’m pretty sure I have fully supported at least one farm with my purchases alone. Before the strawberry season comes to an end *tear,* you need to make these cupcakes. Yes, you do.
Pete and I recently had a couple friends over for dinner for the very first time, and of course, I wanted to impress them with a knockout dessert. I sat down and scrolled through the dessert section of my recipe index (see? I use this blog just as much as you do), but I realized what I most wanted to make I had never posted here before….white vanilla cupcakes with a real fresh strawberry buttercream.
When it was time to bring out the dessert, I served each person TWO full sized cupcakes…because I knew that only serving one would be insulting. They’re that good. You can’t eat just one. Even when you’re counting calories, or watching what you eat (that would be me).
The secret to this delicious buttercream is actually two secrets. The first is to macerate the strawberries. You do this by cutting up the strawberries and letting them sit with some freshly squeezed lemon juice and a little bit of sugar. This softens the strawberries slightly, and intensifies their flavor as they absorb some of the bright lemon and sweet sugar.
Then you puree the strawberries and lemon juice, transferring them afterward to a strainer to let the excess liquid drain a bit. Then you can spoon the intensified strawberry goodness into your buttercream.
Which brings me to secret #2, which is making a real buttercream. I’m not talking about butter mixed with confectioner’s sugar. That’s not real buttercream.
To make real buttercream, you start with egg yolks and whip them until they’re very pale. Then you take a super hot sugar syrup and whisk it into the pale egg yolks with a mixer, until it gets super light and runny, like this.
Then you beat in the butter a little bit at a time until the buttercream is light and fluffy, and you add in the strawberry puree.
Pipe it onto some vanilla cupcakes (I make these white velvet cupcakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum and they’re incredible. I don’t bother making any other kind of white cupcake because I don’t think it can get better than this).
Top with some halved strawberries to make them look extra pretty. Enjoy!
Fresh Strawberry Buttercream Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 dozen vanilla cupcakes
- 1.5 cups chopped fresh strawberries
- 2 tbsp vanilla sugar
- 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 6 egg yolks
- 1.5 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1.5 cups unsalted butter diced
Instructions
- Combine the chopped fresh strawberries with the sugar and lemon juice, and give it a good stir. Let it sit for 15 minutes at room temperature. This is called macerating, and we are softening the strawberries and intensifying their flavor.
- Puree the strawberries in a food processor or blender, taking care to leave some small chunks of strawberry. Pour the mixture in a fine mesh strainer set over a bowl, letting some of the excess liquid drain. Set the drained pureed strawberries aside.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg yolks on high speed for 8 minutes until they are very pale.
- In the meantime, combine the sugar and water in a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat, and let the sugar syrup simmer toward the soft ball stage, which is 238 degrees on an instant read thermometer. When both the egg yolks and the sugar syrup are ready, pour the sugar syrup into the mixing bowl (the mixer should still be on high speed), aiming as best as you can to pour between the wire whisk and the side of the bowl. Now, touch the bottom of the bowl. It’s pretty hot, right? Beat the egg yolk sugar mixture until the bowl feels neither hot nor cold (about 5 minutes). The egg yolk sugar mixture will be very runny at this point.
- Turn the mixer down to medium and add two tbsp of the strawberry puree. Add the butter, a couple cubes at a time to the bowl, over the course of 10 minutes. Wait until each installment of butter is absorbed until you add the next batch. Do a final taste and see if you would like to add any more strawberry puree. Pipe or spread your buttercream on your cupcakes, and enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
80 Comments on “Fresh Strawberry Buttercream Cupcakes”
This buttercream looks divine! I tried a fresh peach frosting once, and it was a disaster. I should try this method next time!
Hi joanne! i just came across your site and i am hooked! This recipe looks divine! I was just wondering if these cupcakes freeze well? (including the frosting) And can i frost them before freezing?
Hi Raizy, both cake and frosting freeze very well! That’s why people can get away with freezing their wedding cake and eating it on their first anniversary LOL. You can frost them before freezing but I’m not sure how nice they would look (I usually pipe later). Also, if the frosting happens to break, you can google how to fix broken frosting, since occasionally that will happen with buttercream. I haven’t had it happen with these though.
Hi – I made these this weekend. And while the taste was fabulous, I found my icing to be very thick like butter…I’m thinking I needed to whip it a bit longer than 10 minutes…could that be the case?
Hi Dana, very interesting! Sometimes I find it to be runny and have to add more butter. I think that next time you could add less butter. Start with 2 sticks and if it has the consistency you like, then you can just stop there. The whipping helps make it airier, but that will only go to a certain point (and if you whip too much, the buttercream might separate), so I’d say add less butter. Hope it helps!
Shut the kitchen door! Three sticks of butter?!? Those look amazing! Will be trying these. Thank you for sharing!
It’s pretty alarming the first time you make buttercream from scratch LOL.
How long do you think the frosting will stay good for? I was thinking of making these in the push-pop cake form for my shower but I would like to prepare the frosting in advance.
Hi Kim, the frosting will stay good in the fridge for 2 days before it starts to head downhill. You might be able to get away with day 3 but I wouldn’t suggest much beyond that. It’s crazy good frosting, hope you get to make it! I’m making some this week.
Awesome, thanks for the quick reply!
I’m SO looking forward to making this… wish me luck 😉
I want to use this recipe but instead of strawberries I want to use mango, do I keep it all the same or do anything different?
Hi Maria, Hm, since mango is kind of acidic already, I’d maybe omit the lemon juice (and also maybe skip the macerating with the sugar). I would try adding just the mango puree. Let us know how it is if you try it!
Hello Joanne, Pinterest brought me here 🙂
Such a beautiful buttercream…an absolute keeper! Your site is truly impressive, cheers…
Bianca
Hi Bianca, welcome! These cupcakes are killer! So good. Hope you enjoy taking a look around and happy cooking =)
Hi ! I discovered your blog thanks to the video of you and Herve ! And now, i’m everyday here waiting for a new post ! Your recipies are just fantastic and very well presented. All is beautiful, photos, design…
And these cupcakes are just lovely ! I can’t wait to try it !
Sincerly, Nina
PS : I’m French so sorry for my english.
Hi Nina, welcome to Fifteen Spatulas! I love Herve, he is a great person. And PS your English is superb!! Really, really good.
Just made this with my own white velvet recipe. This is hands down the best buttercream!! I am officially finished with that old powdered sugar drowned butter recipe. Haha No kidding though!! This isn’t as heavy or overly sweet. This really tastes like homemade strawberry ice cream! Absolutely FANTABULOUS!! Thank you for the recipe! 😀 (can you tell I’m excited? haha)
YAY!!!! I agree, the butter mixed with powdered sugar “buttercream” is lame! Doesn’t taste nearly as good as this real buttercream. So glad you loved it. Have a good weekend!
These are such gorgeous cupcakes!
I was wondering what vanilla sugar is?
thank you
Hi Christina, You can certainly use regular sugar. However, I always keep vanilla sugar around, which is made by taking leftover vanilla beans that have been scraped (for another recipe) and sticking it in the same container as the sugar. After a while the leftover vanilla bean gives the sugar a wonderful vanilla aroma. And it’s a great way not to waste the used up vanilla bean =)
Beautiful cupcakes! I love to buy strawberries too, whenever they are on sale. The buttercream looks insanely delicious!
I’ve been buying up all the strawberries too! I am so ready for spring and all the yummies that come with it!
These cupcakes are absolutely gorgeous!
Wow! Those are absolutely gorgeous!!! I am loving all the strawberries in the stores right now too!!!
These are the prettiest cupcakes ever!!! That buttercream….it sounds wonderful!
So beautiful 🙂