These Pink Strawberry Cupcakes are a sweet and pretty strawberry cupcakes recipe. Utilizing fresh or frozen strawberries, this is a delicious strawberry cupcake recipe made from scratch. Watch the video showing you how to make this recipe, then scroll to the bottom of this post and print out the recipe so you can make them at home.
How to Make Strawberry Cupcakes with Fresh Strawberries:
If you want to make strawberry cupcakes, you can certainly find a box of strawberry cake mix at the store and go with that. But the flavor of the boxed mix isn’t going to bring forth the delicious flavor of fresh strawberries. So how do you use fresh strawberries to make cupcakes? In this recipe, you’ll be using frozen strawberries that you will puree. If you have fresh strawberries on hand, you can pop them in the freezer until frozen and then puree them.
Cake flour is used in this cupcake recipe to give it a nice, cakey texture.
Fair warning: don’t taste the cupcake batter. It tastes like strawberry ice cream, and you may be tempted to grab a straw!!
These cupcakes turn out to be a lovely shade of light pink, but I help that process along with a squirt of pink/red gel paste. You can leave the coloring out and the cakes will be slightly pink, but they’re much cuter with a darker tint.
Pink Strawberry Cupcakes are a darling little dessert to serve at little girl’s birthday parties, baby showers and spring and summer celebrations. Everyone loves a good cupcake. And this is a good cupcake!
I frost these with my Wedding Cupcake Buttercream recipe- I highly recommend you try it! Just tint it with a little bit of red gel paste to get a nice pink hue.
Thank you to Miranda from the CookieDoughAndOvenMitt.com blog for shooting beautiful photos of these cupcakes for me!
Here are a few more cupcake recipes you might enjoy:
- Snickerdoodle Cupcakes
- White Wedding Cake Cupcakes
- Moist Vanilla Cupcakes
- Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes
- Pink Champagne Cupcakes
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes
- Pink Velvet Cupcakes
Pink Strawberry Cupcakes
Recipe Details
Ingredients
- 2¼ cups cake flour
- 1½ cups granulated white sugar
- 2¾ teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (1½ sticks) butter, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup pureed frozen strawberries (about 1/4 of a 1 pound bag)- let them come to room temperature before using in the recipe
- 4 large egg whites
- 1/3 cup milk
- several drops red/pink food color or gel paste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 18 cupcake pan with paper liners.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; set aside.
- In a large bowl use an electric mixer to blend the butter with the strawberry puree. Add the flour mixture and blend until light and fluffy (the batter will be very thick).
- In another bowl, whisk together the egg whites, milk and dye. Add whites in three parts to the batter mixture, mixing only until incorporated after each addition.
- Fill the cupcake liners about 3/4 full. Bake 18 to 22 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
- Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
Video
Notes
- *Use fresh strawberries if you wish, but put them in the freezer first to draw the moisture out of them, and then puree them as you would bagged frozen strawberries.
- *I use Wedding Cupcake Buttercream tinted with pink gel paste to ice these cupcakes.
very tasty! i overbaked my cupcakes a bit, but i also made an 8″ round (about 40min in my smaller oven) and though I froze it, i suspect it’s a little less baked than the cupcakes. i think i’d like to try adding some crushed freeze-dried strawberry to the mix for natural color and a bit more boost on flavor. but i really liked this batter and method. this recipe was recommended by Cupcake Alchemist!
I followed the recipe exactly.
Came out very dense like bread. Not fluffy and doesn’t taste like cake.
Something must have gone wrong somewhere. They should be just like regular cupcakes!
Just wondering is the cake flour I should be using the Soft as Silk brand which is enriched and bleached, or is it the King Arthur brand that is unenriched and unbleached? I want to make these but wasn’t sure which I should buy. Please help
I’ve always used the Soft and Silk brand, but I don’t think it matters!
Do I have to freeze the strawberries
It’s best to do it that way, yes.
I made this and loved it! I just put more strawberry puree on this recipe like a cup instead of 3/4cup and also this is soft and fluffy ? My son who is a picky eater also loved it! This is our new fave as we love strawberry snacks ♥️
Good textures but not enough strawberry flavor
Can I add sour cream to my batter?
I haven’t tried that.
Sum didn’t add up well. I added the right amount of salt and they tasted really salty and I put 19 min for them to bake but they still came out raw??
Something must have gone wrong somewhere– 1/2 teaspoon of salt should not make the cupcakes taste salty– and I have no idea why they didn’t bake through.
Made these cupcakes this afternoon. My daughter loves them!! Thank you!
I chopped strawberries and rolled them lightly in flour. Then put a spoon of batter, strawberries and another spoon. This way they did not sink to the bottom. Baked for 19 minutes. They were so airy and light. Didn’t stick to the paper. And beautiful color.
Turned out terrible, followed recipe to a tee, they were tan colored, and no strawberry taste . This was a waste of expensive ingredients, should have went with a cake mix ?
They taste delicious! My daughter loved them. Just a quick question. Why did the top get a little hard and beneath it is soft?
I’m not sure!
The strawberry purée froze the butter so it wouldn’t incorporate with the rest of the batter properly. Tried to bake them and am just left with an oily mess… what can I do to avoid this.
I didn’t let mine come to room temperature- I just mixed for a good amount of time and it worked out ok. But if you read through the comments, it looks like some people let that mixture come to room temp first.
They were the hit . I cored out the center and added some strawberry puree to the center then added whipped cream topping. They have a great taste.
Can I use AP Flour instead of Cake Flour?
No, but here is a solution: Making a cake flour substitute is easy with the following two ingredients: all-purpose flour and either cornstarch or arrowroot powder. Start with one level cup of AP flour, remove two tablespoons of the flour, and add two tablespoons of cornstarch or arrowroot powder back in. Do this for each cup of flour called for in the recipe.
Cupcakes came out so delicious. Did let butter and my fresh strawberries that I had put in the freezer come to room temp. Put that on top of my stove while my oven was on. Very good recipe.
You forgot to say that frozen strawberries with room temperature butter will make the butter hard again. Doing the cupcakes and found that out. Now waiting for that to come to room temperature.
These are amazing. So pretty and delicious!
These are really pretty! Perfect treats!
Strawberries are one of my favorite fruits. These cupcakes have a great color. I’m wondering if instead of pureeing all of the strawberries you could leave some with some little bits.
My girls love the color and taste of these! Such a delicious cupcake!
The perfect cupcake for summer! That frosting on top looks divine!
The cupcakes came out amazing! I used a strawberry cream cheese icing to top off my cupcakes. Will definitely use this recipe again.
How do I make pureed frozen strawberries?
Put them into a food processor or blender, and process until they are pureed.
Absolutely delicious!! My 3 kids loves it.
And the wedding buttercream frosting, so divine!! Will definetly bake this again.
Can these be made a day in advance?
That should be fine!
I want to use fresh strawberries? Should I use the same amount in my food processor as frozen?
Use fresh strawberries if you wish, but put them in the freezer first to draw the moisture out of them, and then puree them as you would bagged frozen strawberries. Use 3/4 cup pureed.
I just tried this recipe and omg it was delicious. I made a cake with it and it made 2 nice size 8″ rounds. I accidentally used 2 sticks of butter instead of the 1 1/2 and you know what it was so good and moist but not to moist for a tier cake. It was perfect. I did not add the food coloring because I wanted it to be all natural. Also it was not to sweet. I had previously used a recipe that called for a box of strawberry jello and I was never really to happy with it because I felt it was to to sweet. I am my own worst critic about my cakes but I can honestly say this is the best and so natural tasting.
Delicious!!!
I made these for my daughters 11th birthday.
Perfectly sweet and a great crumb texture.
Yet again, you have shared a wonderful recipe, many thanks!!
Ok I made these as test for a communion this weekend because Ive made many cupcakes but never strawberry. I have to say the texture was amazing. I was a little concerned with mixing a cold ingredient into a batter because it goes against everything I’ve learned but I did and still can’t believe how wonderful they came out. I did end up using fresh strawberries because they are in season and plentiful and froze them for and hour or so to bring out the juices then puréed. Again these were so light and domed nicely and had the most amazing crumb. This will be my go to recipes for strawberry cupcake/cake for now on. Thank you for the wonderful recipe!!!!
I made these for my daughters birthday party today – HUGE HIT! Loved the strawberry in the cupcake. I also added a little puree to the buttercream frosting. This will most certainly become a go to recipe for me! Oh..and yeah, you don’t want to try to batter because it’s quite yummy. Also the frosting – my daughter kept wanting to lick off the spatula because it was so good – and of course I let her a few times, you only turn 4 once! ;o)
I loved these, i was looking for recipe like this one and having such a hard time finding one untill i came across this one. Made my younger sister these cupcakes for her bday and she loved them! thank u so much for putting this up.
Made these tonight for my daughters birthday party tomorrow. They came out perfectly pink and delicious! We’re going to put them in ice cream cones and make pink microphones for a girls rock and roll party. Thanks for the yummy recipe!
Hi,
I was wondering if it was possible to turn these cupcakes into a cake? If so, how?
@Libby, I believe I did that once. I think I used three round cake pans and made a three layer cake. You just need to watch the time and test it done w/ a toothpick inserted in center coming out clean.
Just made some of the cupcakes for my son’s 5th birthday- without the red dye- as he insisted on strawberry cupcakes for his birthday! I’m just thankful one of the cupcake liners didn’t lay correctly so I HAD to eat one of them- they are amazing! Thanks for the recipe!
Hi,
Could you add Strawberry Liquor in these cupcakes? If you can,how much would you put in the cupcakes? Do you have anymore cupcake recipes with liquor?
Gale
WOW!! I just made these and they are sooooooo yummy!! My husband can’t stop eating them! Thank you so much for the recipe. I used fresh strawberries—YUM!!
Pink cupcake? PERFECT for my Lily’s 4th birthday tomorrow! I better get to work!!!
Lori, that’s an amaaaazing cupcake ! I loved the way you iced it! So beautiful!!
Hi Lori, your blog is just so awesome and I like the strawberry cupcake very much. Wonder if you could let me know when u say whisk together egg white with milk and dye, does that means throw all 3 ingredients in and whisk or do I have to whisk the egg white till fluffy first before adding milk and dye?
Thanks in advance.
Hi Jeanne, Yes- all you do is whisk the egg white, milk & color together. No need to fluff egg whites!
Oh my!! These look so good!!
These look so good. Gonna have to try these!