Strawberry Cupcakes

Country music group Little Big Town's Kimberly Schlapman shares her recipe for cupcakes made with fresh strawberry puree and frosted with strawberry cream cheese icing.

Related To:

Kimberly cooks up some kid-friendly eats after a visit to Ivey Cake in Nashville, Tenn. and returns to her kitchen with band-mate, Karen Fairchild and the Little Big Town kids for some sweet treats, as seen on Season 2 of Great American Country's Kimberly's Simply Southern.

Cook time: 25-30 minutes | Yield: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1 (3 ounce) package strawberry flavored Jell-O®
4 eggs, room temperature
2 3/4 cups sifted cake flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup whole milk, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup fresh strawberry puree
Fresh strawberries, sliced for garnish

Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing:

16 ounces cream cheese, softened room temperature
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
4 cups sifted powder sugar
3 teaspoons strawberry extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 cupcake pans (12 holders each) with cupcake holders.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and dry strawberry gelatin until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Combine the flour and baking powder; stir into the batter alternately with the milk. Blend in vanilla and strawberry puree. Using an ice cream scoop fill each cupcake holder 3/4 of the way full. You may have some extra batter left over.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees

For the Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing:

Using a hand blender beat all ingredients except powdered sugar together until well incorporated. Slowly add the powdered sugar.