What better way to wish America a Happy Birthday than with cupcakes? These boyfriend-approved strawberry cupcakes are light enough for the summer, but sweet enough to satisfy your sweet tooth.  These are a great option to take to a Fourth of July barbecue, or to make when you are craving something sweet and fruity.  We topped them with blueberries to make sure we had the red, white, and the blue.

Enjoy!

Although this recipe involves using a food processor and hand mixer, these cupcakes are easy to make and you can whip them up in an hour (including cooking time).

Start out by cutting your strawberries into quarters or halves to prepare them to go in the food processor.  We like to use organic strawberries, especially if we can support local farmers by buying them from our local farmer’s market.

Purée the strawberries in a food processor.  If you don’t have one, you could also try putting them in a blender or hand mashing the strawberries.  The idea is to have the strawberries as smooth as possible for the cupcakes.  Transfer the puréed strawberries to a bowl and mix with the milk.

In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Cream the butter and sugar with a hand or electric mixer.  Add the egg and egg whites one at a time, mixing after each addition.  Slowly add the vanilla. Alternate adding the strawberry purée and flour mixture. You’ll end up with the delicious batter for your cupcakes.

Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners.  Fill the liners about 3/4 full with batter.

Here’s another view.

Bake the cupcakes for around 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Keep an eye on them depending on how your oven cooks. While the cupcakes are baking, make the frosting.

Cream the butter and powdered sugar in a bowl with a hand mixer or wire whisk.  Add the vanilla, then add the champagne. Pour a little champagne in a glass for yourself. You don’t want to be wasteful. Put in some blueberries, too, because you’re classy.

You can substitute prosecco for the champagne in the frosting.  Of course, if you don’t like either or want the icing to be alcohol-free, feel free to leave out the champagne.  We promise, though, the champagne frosting is so good.  We don’t have pictures of this step because it takes about two minutes to make frosting.  Let the cupcakes cool completely before you frost them.  It will be difficult to wait, but if you don’t your frosting is going to melt when you put it on the cupcakes and then you’ll be sad.

Once your cupcakes cool, it’s time to frost them! Put as much or as little on as you want.  You can pipe the frosting and make it look pretty or go for the “this looks messy because I’m not trying too hard except this actually took me a long time” look and use a knife or spoon to spread the frosting.  Top the cupcakes with a few blueberries and you’re done!

We hope you like these as much as we do!