Unbelievable Strawberry Cupcake Magic

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line muffin tins with 20 cupcake liners.

2. Grind strawberries into a fine powder using a coffee grinder or food processor. Whisk strawberry powder, all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl.

3. Beat butter and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Mixture should be noticeably lighter in color. Add room-temperature eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to blend into butter mixture before adding the next. Beat in vanilla extract.

4. Stir flour mixture alternately with milk into butter mixture until just incorporated. Fill lined tins with cupcake batter.

5. Bake in preheated oven until cupcakes spring back when gently touched with a fingertip or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 16 to 18 minutes.

Tips

You can grind freeze-dried strawberries into a fine powder using a coffee grinder, Magic Bullet, or food processor.

You can find freeze-dried strawberries at Trader Joe’s or online, or make your own dried strawberries. If you want to make your own, dry 1 pound of very thinly sliced fresh strawberries in a 180 degrees F (80 degrees C) oven for 8 hours, then grind as above into a fine powder.

Try topping these cupcakes with Real Strawberry Frosting.

This recipe also yields 72 mini cupcakes, as opposed to 20 standard cupcakes. For mini cupcakes, be sure line 72 mini muffin tins when beginning the recipe. When putting the batter in the oven, bake for 8 to 10 minutes.