Pondan
Unifood
Gusto
Ready To Eat
Esku
ID
These Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes are light, fluffy, and flavorful! Moist strawberry cupcakes are filled and frosted with lemon whipped cream cheese frosting. Keep this delicious cupcake recipe in mind for spring and summer!
Ingredients
Here’s a quick look at some of the key ingredients for our strawberry cupcakes and lemon whipped cream cheese frosting.
- Strawberry Puree– Fresh or frozen(thawed) strawberries work well in this recipe! No need to heat in a saucepan, just run them through a food processor or blender.
- Strawberry Extract (or powdered Strawberry Jello) For an added boost of strawberry flavor! Use 2 teaspoons of strawberry extract OR 2 tablespoons of powdered strawberry jello.
- Cake Flour has less protein than all purpose flour, which results in less gluten formation. This makes for a softer, more tender cake.
- Unsalted Butter We use softened, unsalted butter in this recipe. Using unsalted butter gives us more control over the amount of salt in the recipe. The butter should be softened just to the point that it easily dents when pressed.
- Sour Cream Adds richness and moisture to the cupcakes without thinning the cake batter.
For the Frosting
- Whipping cream or heavy cream
- Powdered sugar
- Lemon zest and lemon extract
- Softened cream cheese (full fat) adds richness and also helps to thicken the consistency of the frosting.
How to Make Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes
For this recipe, we are pairing lemon whipped cream cheese frosting with our homemade strawberry cupcake recipe.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, line cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
- In a medium sized bowl, add these dry ingredients: cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk to blend for 30 seconds. Set aside.
- In another bowl combine these wet ingredients: sour cream, strawberry puree, strawberry extract and vegetable oil, blend and set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer blend the butter until smooth. Gradually add the white sugar and mix on medium speed 3 to 5 minutes until fluffy and lightened in color. If using pink coloring gel, you can add it now or at any time during the mixing process.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each until the yolk is blended
- With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and the sour cream mixture alternately, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (3 additions of dry ingredients, 2 additions of wet ingredients.)
- Mix just until combined. Scoop batter into cupcake pans that have been prepared with cupcake liners. We usually add about ¼ cup batter per cupcake.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 16-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
NOTE:
Without any hassle, you can use Pondan Cupcake Vanilla premix and follow the instructions on the back of the packaging box, add any additional ingredients such as food coloring and citric acid (if you want to use it). Everything is easy to do, even for beginners.
- These cupcakes will have little to no dome, but even if there’s a dome, it’s okay because it will be covered by the whipped cream garnish later.
Today’s recipe is the lemon version of our whipped cream cheese frosting. The cream cheese in the recipe adds flavor and richness, but also acts as a stabilizer for the whipped cream.
This light and creamy frosting is lemony and delicious, and is great for piping. You can add a touch of yellow coloring gel if you’d like to give it a more lemony appearance.
LEMON WHIPPED CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
- 16 oz cream cheese softened (It must be full fat, not reduced fat or cream cheese in a tub, those are too soft.)
- 2 cups powdered sugar measure then sift (230g)
- 3 cups heavy whipping cream (696g)
- 2 teaspoons lemon extract adjust to your liking (8g)
- zest of one lemon optional
- Yellow Coloring Gel (very small amount) optional
Decorating the Cupcakes
You can decorate these cupcakes however you’d like! We kept things very simple today by swirling our frosting onto the cooled cupcakes using a disposable piping bag fitted with a 2D piping tip.
We topped each cupcake with either a slice of strawberry or small wedge of lemon.
DECORATING
- Frost the cupcakes however you like! We used a 2D large star piping tip to swirl on the frosting, and then topped with either a sliced strawberry or small slice of lemon.
- Because of the frosting, these cupcakes should be refrigerated in an airtight container or sealed bakery box, etc. However, for the very best flavor and texture, remove from the refrigerator 1-2 hours before serving to allow the cake and frosting time to warm and soften.
- **Note that if you’d like to add the lemon whipped cream cheese frosting as a filling as well, you would do this step first. Spoon the frosting into a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away, push halfway down into the cooled cupcake, squeeze piping bag for a couple of seconds to fill, and then add the swirl of frosting on top. (You can squeeze the bag for a couple of seconds on a plate first to get an idea of how much filling you will be adding– or if you have a cupcake to spare, do a trial run and adjust amount accordingly for the others.)
Refrigeration
Because of the frosting, these Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes need to be refrigerated (in an airtight container or sealed bakery box, etc.).
However, for the very best flavor and especially texture, it is best to remove from the refrigerator 1-2 hours before serving. This will allow time for the cake and frosting to warm and soften.
