Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes
June 8, 2014
30 Comments
When I was little I obsessed over everything strawberry. I loved strawberry ice cream, strawberry shortcake, and strawberries straight from the garden. I even remember proudly bragging to my little fellow classmates that my Nana was a genius because she made strawberry pie. My young, sugar-loving taste buds loved that she didn’t corrupt the sweet taste of strawberries with the tangy rhubarb…100% sweet strawberry goodness!
My mom helped me plant strawberries in our garden. I was so excited to be growing my own strawberries. I even remember her going out at the crack of dawn to rescue some of our small crop before the birds ate them all. It was a labor of love and they tasted fantastic!
June always reminds me of the delicious taste of fresh picked strawberries. Most of the orchards in New York (where I grew up) and Connecticut (where I live now) have pick-your-own berries all summer, starting with strawberries in early June. I love tramping around the orchards, picking and tasting the strawberries!
Today I’m sharing a summery strawberry recipe, Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes!
The cake is flavored with real strawberries, and doesn’t include a) a boxed strawberry cake mix or b) a packet of strawberry jello. I prefer the natural taste of strawberries over the artificial flavoring. If you like the bright pink color typical of strawberry cakes, just add a few drops of red food coloring to the batter.
The tangy cream cheese frosting is a perfect complement to the sweet strawberry cupcakes. I think even my younger taste buds would have appreciated it, but you can always substitute a vanilla butter cream frosting if you prefer. Just use all butter in the frosting recipe instead of the butter-cream cheese mixture.
Piping cream cheese frosting can be tricky. The water in the cream cheese can cause the frosting to get runny, making it pretty much impossible to pipe. I found that the secret to piping cream cheese frosting is:
a) use full fat cream cheese, it has less water and therefore is less likely to get runny and
b) beat the butter and the powdered sugar first then just add a little cream cheese for flavor.
I divided my frosting in half, dying one half pink and keeping the other half white to create a pretty pink and white swirl!
As an added bonus I decided to experiment with a yummy cupcake filling. I found there was no need for fancy filling equipment. I gently cut a hole in the center of each cupcake, filled it with a little strawberry cheesecake filling, and then placed the cupcake lid back on top!
Voila! Instant strawberry cheesecake surprise! Yummy!
I hope you enjoy these sweet, tangy strawberry cupcakes. My adult taste buds even found an orchard that kept pace…These cupcakes pair perfectly with this sparkling summer delight!
Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes
-
12 Strawberries
-
1 cup sugar
-
½ cup unsalted butter
-
1 large egg room temperature
-
½ cup milk
-
¼ cup plain greek yorgurt
-
1 teaspoon vanilla
-
1 2/3 cup flour
-
½ teaspoon baking powder
-
¼ teaspoon baking soda
-
½ teaspoon salt
-
1 teaspoon lemon zest
Frosting and Filling
-
¾ cup softened unsalted butter 1 ½ sticks
-
2 cups of powdered sugar sifted measure before sifting
-
1 teaspoon vanilla
-
4 ounces of cream cheese
-
2 tablespoons liquid strawberry puree* or strawberry jam
-
red food coloring optional
Instructions
-
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 muffin cuts with cupcake liners and set aside.
-
Pulse about 4 strawberries in a food processor to get about 1/3 cup chunky puree and set aside. Puree about 8 strawberries in a food processor to get about ½ cup + 2 tablespoons of liquid puree and set aside.
-
Melt butter in a large microwave safe bowl on medium power for about 30-60 seconds. Stir in sugar, then stir in egg, yogurt, milk, vanilla, and ½ cup strawberry liquid puree (not the chunks yet).
-
In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet and gently stir until there are no lumps in the batter. Gently fold in strawberry chunks and lemon zest.
-
Divide evenly between the 12 cupcake lined muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.
-
Once cupcakes are completely cool, beat butter for frosting with an electric mixer on medium until smooth, about 1 minute. Add powdered sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add vanilla, then add cream cheese one ounce at a time until desired tanginess is reached.*
-
Make filling by combining 2 tablespoons of frosting with the 2 tablespoons of liquid strawberry puree set aside during cupcake making. Cut ½” diameter holes in cupcakes, making sure not to go through the bottom (I went about half way down the cupcake). Fill cupcake with 1 teaspoon each of the filling then cover with the piece of cupcake originally removed.
-
Divide remaining frosting in half, dying one half pink with red food coloring. Put frosting in a frosting bag with pink on one side and white on the other.** Pipe on cupcakes, serve and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
*Too much cream cheese will cause frosting to be runny.
**Some tips on how to swirl and pipe frosting:
http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/how-to-make-swirled-frosting/
http://www.melskitchencafe.com/video-tip-how-to-frost-cupcakes-bakery-style/
Kira
Will be using this recipe for a coworkers birthday. I’m very excited.
Karen
Hi Kira! I hope you and your coworkers enjoyed the cupcakes 🙂
Kim Lester
I made these for Valentine’s Day on yesterday and I was amazed at how simple the recipe was. I decided to try this recipe after SEVERAL failed attempts to make cupcakes that called for jello and/or sour cream. The cupcakes I made using the other recipe left me with sunken, dense, half-baked blobs of batter. I didn’t get a chance to taste the cupcakes I made using this recipe because I had baked them to fill holiday cupcake orders, but the was happy with the taste of the batter and the density of the end product. If I get any feedback from my customers, I’ll update this post.
Karen
Hi Kim! I’m happy you liked the cupcake recipe and I hope they were a hit with your customers 🙂
Ann Pierce
Wow! What an alluring little cupcakes. Would love to have them anytime!
Karen
Thanks Ann! 🙂
Renae
So I made these yesterday and OMG! I did change a few ingredients because I wanted it less dense and super moist. I changed the butter to oil, added an extra egg and used sour cream instead of yogurt because that’s what I had. The result was amazing. Moist, slightly dense and just heaven. Thanks so much!
Karen
Hi Renea! I’m delighted you loved the cupcakes! 🙂
Renae
Update: tried making it with peaches because a friend wanted peach. Unfortunately-the flavor didn’t come through. I used fresh peaches but peaches naturally have a very subtle flavor to begin with. Trying blueberries tonight.
Karen
Hi Renae! Thanks for the update. It’s a shame the peach flavor didn’t come through more. Let me know how it goes with the blueberries – happy baking (and tasting 😉 )
Akhila
Hi Karen,
Amazing recipe. I made these for my son’s cupcake sale. Though the frosting didn’t look like yours, the taste was so yummy..
Thanks for the recipe, definitely a keeper.
Akhila
Karen
Hi Akhila! I’m delighted the cupcakes were a hit for your son’s cupcake sale! Cream cheese frosting came definitely be a bit tricky to pipe onto cupcakes since it tends to get runny really easy. No matter how it comes out though at least it always tastes delicious 🙂
Rachel
Hi Karen,
I was wondering what you thought of making a thin graham cracker crust layer that you prebake before adding the cupcake batter? Perhaps the addition of the graham crackers would result in an even more “cheesecakey” flavor?
Also would it be possible for you to post the recipe in weight equivalents? Either oz or grams would be great – I pretty much use my digital scale exclusively to measure dry ingredients when baking.
Also what tip did you use to pipe?
Thanks so much! Rachel
Karen
Hi Rachel! Thanks for your interest in the Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes and for reaching out with your questions. I haven’t tried putting a graham cracker layer under the cupcake, but it sounds like a really fun idea! You could probably bake it similarly to this gingersnap or shortbread crust, then proceed with the cupcake on top after the crust has been pre-baked. Let me know if you give it a try — I’d love to hear how it goes.
I haven’t converted my recipes to weight measurements, but for this one:
1 2/3 cup of flour = 207 grams
1 cup of sugar = 200 grams
1/2 cup butter = 115 grams
Lastly, I used a 1M piping tip for these cupcakes.
I hope all this helps — let me know if you have any other questions. Happy Baking 🙂
Breanna
Thanks so much for the recipe! This was the first time that I made a cupcake recipe from scratch and I must have done something wrong. The cupcakes are very dense (kind of like a muffin) and when I pulled them out, they seemed to dent in the middle. I followed the directions to the T, but maybe I need to add more baking powder/soda? Any suggestions would be wonderful so I can make this recipe without completely failing. Hey, my icing came out well though :).
Karen
Hi Breanna! Thank you for your interest in the Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes and for reaching out with you questions. I’m sorry they didn’t turn out how you were hoping. These cupcakes are little on the dense side, but if they are so dense they are like muffins it may have been caused by overmixing the ingredients or adding too much flour to the recipe. Do you by chance have a food scale? I recently found that my dry measures were resulting in me using 33% more flour than if I weighed the ingredients.
As for the dents in the cupcakes, do you know if they rose then fell or if they never rose? If it’s the former it may help to cut down on the baking powder a little, sometimes too much leavening can make bubbles form in the cake that are too large to support themselves making the cake rise too much and fall. If the cupcakes never rose, it may be possible that your baking powder has expired. In either case, make sure your oven isn’t running hot or that you don’t open the oven door too much during baking, issues with temperature can cause the cupcakes to have trouble rising or staying risen.
I hope this is helpful – keep me updated if you try making the cupcakes again. I’m happy the icing was yummy at least 🙂
Sasha
These are amazing! I made a triple batch to take to work for my boss’s birthday and everyone loved them! I was told they were the ‘best cupcakes ever!’ and and lots of people asked for the recipe. When I was making them I forgot to put in the milk! I realized it when the first batch was in the oven and added it to the rest of the batter. But even the batch without milk came out great, it just had a more ‘muffin-y’ texture. And the other two batches were just perfect! Thanks
Karen
Hi Sasha! I’m delighted to hear the Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes were such a hit at your boss’ birthday party! I’m glad all the batches, even the one without milk, turned out delicious. Thank you for sharing 🙂
Caitie
Ok, I had to try these for a picky friend. He doesn’t like cake a whole lot and only eats desserts covered in fruit! I put little strawberry slices on top and viola…up to his standards! They were so so good! Thanks for the recipe, really really loved the taste and texture of all of it! THANK YOU!
Karen
Hi Caitie! I’m so happy to hear the strawberry cheesecake cupcakes were a hit! I bet the strawberry slices were a great added touch 🙂
Lisa
These sound delicious! Would this work for an actual cake? Instead of cupcakes?
Karen
Thanks Lisa! Yes, this recipe works as a cake too. I’ve doubled the recipe and made it as a 3 layer cake with the filling (or more frosting) between the layers. You’ll just need to adjust the baking time to make sure a toothpick comes out clean. I’d love to hear how it comes out! 🙂
Destiny
These turned out great! Great flavor!
Karen
Hi Destiny! I’m delighted to hear you enjoyed the strawberry cheesecake cupcakes! I love the natural strawberry flavor and am getting excited strawberry season will be here before we know it 🙂
Katie
I’ve been searching for a recipe for this weekend for days and this might be it! I still need some convincing since there aren’t many comments or reviews. Are these amazingly fantastic? Haha, thanks.
Karen
Hi Katie! I definitely highly recommend these cupcakes! They have a great fresh strawberry taste, with no artificial strawberry flavor. I’d love to hear what you think if you end up giving them a try. Enjoy 🙂
Mary
These were great! I was in a bind and didn’t have Greek yogurt so I substituted heavy cream and it worked out.
Karen
Hi Mary! That’s great to hear! I bet the heavy cream substitution was delicious. I’m happy you enjoyed them 🙂
dina
they look delicious!
Karen
Thanks Dina! 🙂