Famous Strawberry Cupcakes

These are the best homemade strawberry cupcakes you'll ever taste. They're simply amazing!

Advice Note: The recipe does not call for it, but I highly, highly, highly reccommend using baking cups. These cupcakes are delicate and very moist, and without the baking cups they tend to fall apart. Just FYI.

P.S. Katie also reccommends these cupcakes with a dark chocolate frosting, rather than the strawberry frosting given here. Yum!

Angie's* Famous Strawberry Cupcakes
(*I don't know Angie -- but Katie does)

2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar (or a little less)
2 eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups fresh, chopped strawberries

Directions
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare two cupcake pans.
- Sift flour, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl.
- In the bowl of your mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time until combined.
- Add buttermilk, oil, and vanilla until just combined.
- Add flour mixture and stir until just combined.
- Fold in chopped strawberries.
- Fill your cupcake pans 3/4 way full.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes.
- Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

Strawberry Frosting
1/4 cup strawberries
1 tbsp. strawberry liquor** (I had no luck finding this -- I omitted it, added 1/2 tbsp of water, and it still tasted DELICIOUS)
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract

Directions
- Put the berries, liquor (or water), and lemon juice in a saucepan.
- Bring to a boil over medium heat and then reduce to a simmer over low heat for 5 minutes.
- Let cool (about 20 minutes) and then blend until smooth.
- In the bowl of your mixer, mix cream cheese and butter until creamy.
- Add sugar, then vanlla.
- Add berry puree until smooth.
- Frost cupcakes.

**Katie gives no advice on this, but, I store these cupcakes in the fridge because of the cream cheese icing.