Really Real Strawberry Cupcakes
For this from-scratch strawberry cupcake recipe, I tested and tasted lots of cupcakes. I was determined to make a perfect strawberry cupcake to go with a strawberry frosting I developed a couple of years ago. The trick is not using a purée, as I do when making frosting. Rather, I grind freeze-dried strawberries into a powder, which yields great results — it brought this cupcake recipe out of my test kitchen and into my recipe box!
freeze-dried strawberries
1 ¼
ounces
all-purpose flour
¾
cup
cake flour
¾
cup
baking powder
1 ½
teaspoons
baking soda
¼
teaspoon
salt
½
teaspoon
white sugar
1 ⅓
cups
unsalted butter, room temperature
½
cup
eggs, room temperature
3
large
vanilla extract
1
teaspoon
whole milk, room temperature
⅔
cup
 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line muffin tins with 20 cupcake liners.
  Grind freeze-dried strawberries into a fine powder using a coffee grinder or food processor. Whisk together strawberry powder, flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl until well combined. Set aside.
  Beat together sugar and butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy and noticeably lighter in color. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla until incorporated.
  Stir flour mixture alternately with milk into butter mixture until just incorporated. Portion into the prepared muffin cups.
  Bake in the preheated oven until cupcakes spring back when gently touched with a fingertip or a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 16 to 18 minutes.
