Strawberry filled cupcakes

Looking for an easy to make dessert that also is delicious and pretty at the same time? Give these strawberry filled cupcakes a try! They check off all those boxes and more!

I have been on a strawberry kick lately with my decorating. Did you see these super cute DIY fabric strawberries that I shared last week?! The decorating inspired me to make a strawberry dessert too! I have made raspberry filled cupcakes before, as seen in my post on how to easily fill cupcakes. However, I have never tried it with strawberry filling, so I thought this would be the perfect time to make some strawberry filled cupcakes.

Strawberry filled cupcakes are easier than you think

Filled cupcakes may sound difficult, but they are really very simple to make. And don’t worry about needing lots of ingredients, these are simple vanilla cake box cupcakes with an upgrade. 😉

Oh, and by the way, the frosting is so yummy! It is a homemade buttercream frosting that tastes whipped and creamy.

How to take your cupcakes to the next level

There are a couple things I like to do when I make cupcakes to differentiate them from your normal cupcake. These easy steps will make your cupcakes rise amongst the rest. I have had requests to make cupcakes for events for people but I am not a professional baker or caterer by any means. LOL! Usually when they find out how easy it is to make these cupcakes, they start making them that way too!

• Tweak the ingredients for a cake box mix to make it taste way better
• Add a surprise filling inside
• Make your own DIY liners to make them look professionally made
• Make homemade frosting instead of store bought

How to make a cake box mix taste better

I have a great hack for you on how to make your cake box mix taste like professionally made cupcakes. It is so easy, it almost feels like cheating! 🙂

All you have to do is make the cake batter like normal, but substitute softened butter for the oil and substitute milk for the water. This makes a thicker and more creamy batter that tastes divine! I have had so many compliments on my cupcakes making them this way. No one knows they are just a regular cake box, until I tell them that is. Ha!

Make your own cupcake liners

Another thing that I like to do is to make my own cupcake liners. Not only do they look very nice, the liner separates from the cupcakes so easily. You are not left with half the cupcake on the liner. Check out my post on how to make DIY cupcake liners to learn how to do it!

There is also a tip in there on how to get the cake batter in without getting it all over the liner! The cupcakes bake up so nicely in these liners too!

Add a surprise filling in your cupcakes

Adding a filling to your cupcakes is a nice unexpected bonus for people when eating a cupcake. It is a small step that, I think, adds a lot to your cupcakes. Check out my post on how to easily fill cupcakes to find out how I do it. 

This is the first time I have added strawberry filling and I will tell you, it was a little bit more challenging than using raspberry filling. I used pie filling to fill the cupcakes and with the raspberry, it was not an issue. However, the strawberries in the pie filling were very large and so they took up almost the whole space for the filling. I ended up just removing the big strawberries and using only the gelatinous filling. 

In the future, I may use strawberry preserves instead or possibly blend the strawberry filling first to chop up the strawberries. They still turned out great, but it was an unexpected step.

Make your own homemade frosting

*There are links to products in this post that I use or are similar to products I use. If you buy something from one of these links, I may make a small commission (with no additional cost to you) from the purchase. I will not recommend anything that I would not buy myself.

The last step for phenomenal cupcakes is to make your own buttercream frosting! This frosting is soooooo good and it pipes on like a dream. Over the years through trial and error, I have found that using an extra large tip (similar to these) for piping the frosting onto cupcakes gives you a look that resembles professional looking cupcakes.

For this frosting, I added food coloring to get a nice soft pink. I needed some new food coloring so I used these Wilton gel food colors and it was a lot stronger than my previous ones. Initially I put in 3 drops of red and it turned a brighter pink than I was wanting! I ended up toning it down with 3 drops of yellow, which ended up as the perfect shade of a warm pink. However I was panicking at first! Learn from my mistake and add one drop at a time! 🙂

Strawberry filled cupcakes

Yield: 24 Cupcakes

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

These easy strawberry filled cupcakes not only look professionally made but they taste like it too!

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Ingredients

Cupcakes

• 1 vanilla flavored cake mix (and ingredients on box, however substitute milk for water and softened butter for oil)
• Strawberry pie filling

Frosting

• 1 cup butter, softened to room temp.
• 1 cup shortening (I use Crisco)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1/8 cup all-purpose flour
• 5 cups sifted powdered sugar
• 2 Tbsp milk
• Red and yellow gel food colors

Instructions

1. Make cupcakes according to directions on the box
2. Add strawberry pie filling to cupcakes after cooled
3. Cream butter, shortening, and extracts until light and fluffy - about 5 minutes
4. Add flour to creamed fat mixture
5. Beat until thoroughly combined
6. Add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time sifting it as you add, beating until combined
7. When all sugar has been added and combined, add 2 Tbsp milk
8. Beat for an additional 6-8 minutes on medium speed
9. Add food coloring if desired
10. Pipe frosting onto cupcakes

Notes

Add sugar pearl beads and strawberries to top of cupcakes if desired

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 24 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 321Total Fat: 17gSaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 25mgSodium: 222mgCarbohydrates: 41gFiber: 0gSugar: 32gProtein: 1g

What do you think? Are you going to try to make some strawberry filled cupcakes? I think you should. 🙂 I will be back next week to share my strawberry tablescape with you starring these cupcakes!