These cute Strawberry Cupcakes with Buttercream Flowers are a spin on the cupcakes and cake I made for Ryan and my wedding 5 years ago. I make them every year for our anniversary and birthday week celebration and always put a fun spin on them to change things up a bit!
May is a big month for celebrations at our house - it's pretty much one two-week long celebration of birthdays, anniversaries and holidays! Here's the rundown:
- May 4 - our anniversary
- May 9 - Ryan's birthday
- May 10 - My birthday + Ryan's brother's birthday
- May 10-15ish - Mother's Day
- End of May - Memorial Day
So as you can see, there are many "excuses" to make a cake....or pie.....or cookies....or maybe all of it over the course of the month! But one thing stays consistent: I always make a fresh strawberry cake (or cupcakes) the week of our anniversary and birthdays because that is what we had at our wedding! Truth be told, I actually made our wedding cake and all of the strawberry cupcakes + desserts that we had at the wedding reception. I tested/practiced the recipes I was going to use for 4 months prior to the actual wedding to get things just right. It really was more fun than I thought it was going to be, and I have fun looking back at the photos each year!
This year marked our 5 year wedding anniversary, and it just so happens that we spent the day traveling to Italy. We are so excited to be spending our actual birthdays (Ryan's was yesterday and mine is today!) with friends on the Amalfi Coast - I'm guessing my day of birthday treat will involve gelato of sorts! But as tradition would have it, I needed to make our strawberry cake before we left on the trip. Thankfully, I had a really good reason to, because I was able to make them for my sweet Granny's 87th birthday the week before we were supposed to leave!
My fresh strawberry cake for this year was in the form of cupcakes that I decorated with sweet little buttercream roses and pansies. These are some of Granny's favorite flowers, and of course, they had to be in one of her "signature" colors: pink! I had never made buttercream flowers up until this point, but thanks to some AMAZING tutorials on YouTube, I was able to make a pretty decent beginner's attempt at them!
Video
- How to Make a Buttercream Wild Rose
- How to Make a Buttercream Rose
- Buttercream English Roses Flower Wreath Cake
Tools
Similar recipes
If you are looking for more springtime sweets, check out these Spring Cutout Cookies or this Fresh Lime Tart with Blackberry Sauce!
If you decide to give these Strawberry Cupcakes a try, leave a comment and rate the recipe below. This will help me with the creation of future recipes!
I’d also love to feature your creation in my weekly newsletter, so you can upload a photo to Instagram with the tag @sweetcayenne5 to be featured! Quick and easy recipe videos are available on my YouTube channel, and lots of menu inspiration on my Pinterest boards.
Recipe
Strawberry Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and Buttercream Flowers
Ingredients
For the strawberry puree:
- 1 pound fresh strawberries, hulled and halved
For the cake batter:
- 2 ½ cups cake flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 4 large egg whites, at room temperature (see note)*
- 1 large whole egg, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¾ cup full-fat buttermilk, at room temperature
- ½ cup reduced strawberry puree see note*
For the cream cheese frosting:
- 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons half and half, plus more as needed
- 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
For the buttercream flowers:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons half and half, plus more as needed
- 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- Americolor gel in “Mint Green” (#112)
- Americolor gel in “Peach” (#117)
- Americolor gel in “Dusty Rose” (#115)
- White nonpareils sprinkles
Special equipment:
- Wilton tip 1A
- Wilton tip 104
- 4 icing bags and coupler sets
- Flower nail
- Parchment paper squares (2’’x2’’)
- Natural paper cupcake liners
Instructions
For the strawberry puree:
- Combine the strawberries in a blender and puree until smooth. Transfer to a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring often until the puree has reduced to about ½ cup. Transfer to a bowl and cool to room temperature.
For the cake batter:
- Preheat the oven to 350℉. Line muffin tins with paper liners (you should need about 2 ½ dozen), and set aside.
- Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large fine-mesh sieve. Sift together into a large bowl. Set aside.
- Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat them together at high speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.
- Add the egg whites and egg to the butter mixture and beat on high speed for 2 minutes, scraping down the sides and bottom of bowl as needed.
- Add the vanilla and strawberry puree to the buttermilk. Stir to combine.
- Alternately in 3 additions for the buttermilk mixture and 2 additions for the flour mixture, add the liquid and dry ingredients to the mixer on low speed, beginning and ending with the liquid mixture, until just combined. Do not overmix. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl as needed between mixing additions. The batter will be slightly thick.
- Fill the lined cupcake wells with batter until two-thirds full. Bake for 16-18 minutes or until the cupcake tops spring back when touched and are just set in the middle.
- Remove pans from oven and let cool 5 minutes. Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
For the cream cheese frosting:
- Combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on high speed until combined and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla, half and half, and powdered sugar. Mix on low speed until just combined, then increase to high speed and beat for 2-3 minutes until the frosting is light and fluffy. Transfer to a piping bag to use right away or chill up to 2 days for later use. (see note)*.
For the buttercream flowers:
- Combine the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on high speed until combined and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla, half and half, and powdered sugar. Mix on low speed until just combined, then increase to high speed and beat for 2-3 minutes until the frosting is light and fluffy. Divide the frosting into 3 bowls, with one of the bowls being about half the amount of the other two bowls. In the bowls with the larger amounts of frosting, use the food coloring gel in the color “peach” to dye one bowl and the color “dusty rose” to dye the other bowl. You will need 1-2 drops of color to reach the colors in this recipe’s photos. In the bowl with the smaller amount of frosting, add 1-2 drops of the color “mint green” and stir to combine. Transfer each color to a piping bag fitted with a coupler and use right away or store in the refrigerator for later use (see note)*.
Cupcake assembly:
- Use a pastry bag fitted with tip 1A to frost the cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Apply the frosting in a swirling motion, starting on the outside of the cupcakes and working towards the center. Reserve a small amount of the cream cheese frosting for applying the buttercream flowers to the cupcakes.
- Follow the video tutorials in this blog post to make the buttercream flowers. Be sure to chill the flowers thoroughly before placing them on the cupcakes! Use a small dab of cream cheese frosting to adhere each chilled flower and leaf to the top of the cupcake.
- Once decorated, cupcakes can be chilled up to one day before serving and frozen up to 1 month before serving. To thaw, simply place the cupcakes in the refrigerator overnight or set out at room temperature for one hour.
Notes
- Use the remaining egg yolks to make homemade pudding!
- Leftover strawberry puree can be used as a pancake, waffle, oatmeal or ice cream topping. Once baked, cupcakes can be stored in the refrigerator up to one day before frosting them.
- Cream cheese and buttercream frosting may be made up to 3 days ahead. For the cream cheese frosting, let it sit out at room temperature for 1 hour before placing it in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Beat on high for two minutes to make it fluffy again. For the buttercream, let it sit at room temperature for one hour before adding food coloring and putting it in piping bags.
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