Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes

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Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes

Featuring moist vanilla cake, luscious chantilly whipped cream topping, and freshly chopped strawberries, these fruity strawberry shortcake cupcakes put a portable twist on the classic favorite dessert!

Prep Time30

Cook Time25

Total Time55

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 285kcal

Author: Katalin Nagy

Equipment

Ingredients

Vanilla Cupcakes

150 g Granulated sugar
113 Unsalted butter at room temperature
2 Egg at room temperature
2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
120 g Whole milk at room temperature
185 g All purpose flour
½ teaspoon Salt
½ teaspoon Baking powder
½ teaspoon White vinegar
½ teaspoon Baking soda

Mascarpone Stabilized Whipped Cream

230 g Heavy cream 36% fat content, cold
75 g Mascarpone 41% fat content, cold
30 g Powdered sugar sifted
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

Strawberry filling

240 g Fresh strawberries finely chopped

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Vanilla Cupcakes

Prepare your cupcake tin by lining it with muffin liners and preheat your oven to 175℃ / 350℉ (no fan).
In a large bowl, cream the room-temperature butter and sugar for a few minutes until light and fluffy. Then, whip in the room-temperature eggs one by one, and finally, mix in the vanilla extract.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. This is your dry ingredients. Reduce the mixer speed to low speed and add the dry ingredients in thirds alternating with the room temperature milk. Do not overmix the batter at this point.
In a small bowl, mix vinegar with the baking soda. It will be super bubbly. Then, immediately fold the vinegar mixture into the batter just until it's combined.
Pipe or spoon the batter evenly into the cavities of your cupcake tin, filling each one about ¾ full.
Bake the cupcake for about 20-22 minutes at 175℃ / 350℉ or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Do not overbake them, as they can dry out. Cool the baked cupcakes on a cooling rack. They must be at room temperature before frosting.

Mascarpone Stabilized Whipped Cream

Place very cold 36% fat-content heavy cream and cold 41% fat-content mascarpone into a mixing bowl along with the sifted powdered sugar.
Whip it up with an electric hand mixer for a minute, and then add the vanilla.
The whipped cream frosting reaches a fluffy and pipeable consistency after about 2-3 minutes. You will have to stop at early hard peaks (straight after soft peaks). If you continue whipping, the frosting will separate, get runny, and then it will turn into butter.
Move the frosting into a piping bag.

Assembling

Wash and finely chop the strawberries.
When the cupcakes are chilled to room temperature, pipe the frosting on top and place some chopped strawberries in the middle of the frosting. Alternatively, make a teaspoon of holes on each vanilla cupcake base and fill them also with the chopped strawberries.
Serve the cupcakes fresh. Any leftovers can be stored covered and refrigerated for 1-2 days.

Notes

Ingredient notes:

Measure your ingredients with a digital scale for accuracy.
All cupcake ingredients must be at room temperature to properly emulsify: eggs, butter, and milk.
Both the mascarpone and the heavy cream need to be high in fat. The low-fat versions won't whip up correctly because they contain more water.

Technique notes:

The baking soda and vinegar mixture is my signature baking hack for making cupcakes super moist and fluffy; do not skip it.
Baking these cupcakes takes 22 minutes in my oven. However, you should focus on the texture, not the time. Apply the toothpick test (it should come out clean) to avoid overbaked cupcakes. Do not overbake them, as that will result in a dry texture.
Chantilly cream is very easy to overwhip. When whipping, stop as soon as the mixture has reached a fluffy consistency (this will take 2-3 minutes) and early stiff peaks. It won't get stiffer after this point. In fact, if you overbeat it, it will only get runnier, and then it will break.

Nutrition