Strawberry Filled Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I’ve been watching way too much Cupcake Wars lately and have had the cupcake itch for days! What cupcakes to bake?! Was the question. I figured, my favorite cake (vanilla), favorite frosting (cream cheese) and favorite fruit (strawberries) would do the trick to kick all my cupcake cravings!

I started off with the strawberry filling, you will need:

• 2 cups of fresh diced strawberries
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons of corn starch

Over medium heat, toss in your diced strawberries into a saucepan. Stirring constantly, you’ll notice the strawberries getting softer and forming their own little sauce at the bottom of the pan. Then add the sugar and corn starch, this will immediately cause the sauce to thicken. Stir until everything is blended completely, remove from heat and place strawberry sauce into a heat safe bowl. Set aside to cool.


On to the vanilla cupcakes! You will need:

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add one egg at a time to the mixture, then add the vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the cream mixture. Beat ingredients together, then finally add the milk and mix until smooth.

Spoon your batter into cupcake liners, about 3/4 full. Bake about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Allow cupcakes to cool, about 20-30 minutes.
Once the cupcakes are cool, it’s time to stuff them full of strawberry goodness! Cut X’s in the middle of each cupcake top and scoop the strawberry mixture into a piping tool. Gently place the end of the piping tool into the X of each cupcake and allow the strawberries to fill to the top of the cupcake. They will look like lovely little crime scenes!

It’s time to whip up the cream cheese frosting! You will need:

• 2 (8oz.) packages of cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 cups confectioners sugar

Cream together the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl until smooth, then mix in the vanilla extract. Slowly add the sugar into the mixture until everything is creamy and mixed together nicely.

Frost the cupcakes! Yum 🙂