Happy Birthday BFF & Strawberry Cupcakes

I hosted a small birthday brunch for my BFF and cupcake cheerleader L at her house this past weekend. Having already made her favorite - lemon cake - at her baby shower last year, I opted to try a new flavor, strawberry, which to my delight was a success.





You can see that the batter was super sticky - I thought I had over mixed and it was gonna turn into chewy goo, but I think the batter is supposed to be like that with all that yogurt in it. The cupcakes by themselves didn't look too exciting, but it was the vanilla buttercream that really brought out the essence of the berries. It tasted like a strawberry creamsicle. YUM!

You can do it too, though I recommend waiting for strawberries to be in season, as they were a a bit pricey and also very tart.

Thank you to Cooking with Amy for the her Strawberry Cupcake recipe. I used my own buttercream recipe instead of the one below.

Special thanks to my BFF L, who gave me that nifty cupcake/cake carrier that you see in the pics.

Strawberry Cupcakes

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 large egg
6 ounces Dannon® All Natural Vanilla Lowfat Yogurt (or any other fruit flavor of yogurt)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup fresh strawberries, diced

Frosting:
1 stick butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 fresh strawberries, about 2 Tbsp. mashed

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners. With an electric hand mixer, beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the egg, Dannon® All Natural Vanilla Lowfat Yogurt and vanilla, blending until smooth.

2. Measure the dry ingredients into the bowl and blend, then fold in the strawberries.

3. Divide the mixture equally between the 12 paper-lined cupcake cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

4. Beat together butter, powdered sugar, and mashed strawberry in medium-size bowl until creamy and smooth. Chill frosting for 15 minutes or until thick. Frost cupcakes with a spatula. Keep cupcakes in the refrigerator loosely covered.
Yield: 12 servings