The Story:
I am a hopeless romantic.
They say the first step to recovery is admitting the problem, so there you go.
I love waking up and eating cereal under the covers.
The sound of rain on the windowsill makes me all gooey inside because I think about couples running out the door hand in hand to kiss under the thunderclouds.
I could watch sappy chick flicks all day long with a box of Kleenex and a cozy blanket.
Playing matchmaker is my new favorite hobby.
I save all the cute little notes and trinkets boys give me.
And I love helping my friends plan their weddings, bridal showers, receptions and I always cry watching their first dance as husband and wife.
Even though I’m allergic to these cupcakes (red dye problems) they are still the romance cupcake.
Strawberry Red Velvet Cupcakes
Ingredients
Strawberry Red Velvet Cake:
- 1 box red velvet cake
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 C. melted butter cooled
- 1/2 C. strawberries pureed in the blender
- 1/4 C. milk
- 2/3 C. sour cream or plain yogurt
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1/2 C. butter softened
- 8 oz. cream cheese
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 3-4 1/2 C. powered sugar
Extra strawberries for decoration
Instructions
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1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line pans with cupcake liners.
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2. Sift cake mix into a small bowl and set aside.
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3. In a large bowl, combine eggs, butter, strawberry puree, milk, sour cream and vanilla extract.
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4. Add cake mix and stir.
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5. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for 16-22 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean.
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6. Cream Cheese Frosting: Beat butter and cream cheese for 2 minutes. Add vanilla and 3 cups powdered sugar. Beat well. Slowly add in more powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency.
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7. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes and top with strawberries.
Check out me and these cupcakes on Striving Onward!
I have always wondered when you would put a strawberry cupcake recipe up 🙂 These are beautiful! They remind me of Valentines day which is my Anniversary with my husband. 🙂 Love these!
So pretty!
Hi Lizzie. My frostings all collapse and don’t look as pretty as yours. It appears stiff when I stir it up but by the time I get the cupcakes to the fridge, the frosting is collapsing and looks more like a flat swirl. Any suggestions?
Are you using REAL butter? Has the butter ever been melted? The answers should be yes then no. Make sure to really beat your butter and cream cheese before doing anything else. Then beat in your powdered sugar. Be sure to use enough sugar too. You should be able to drag your spatula or finger through the frosting without it sinking back together. Then you know it’s ready!
I used to have the same problem with my cream cheese frostings and got this tip from another cupcake blog: never use room temp butter or cream cheese (as most recipes say to). The key is that the butter is “softened” not room temp, just enough that you can slightly press your finger in it and not totally through it 🙂 I always use cream cheese right out of the fridge. Will need to beat them long enough to ensure there are no clumps, but this helps my cream cheese frostings stay stiff. Hope that helps! 🙂
Do you beat your frosting using a Kitchen Aid (stand) mixer? And if so… which attachment do you use?
Yes and I used the paddle attachment!
I used to have that problem and found out I wasn’t beating the butter long enough before I added other ingredients. The butter will turn a very light yellow when it is ready to add more ingredients. I would try to make buttercream and it would fall flat or break apart. Creamcheese is a very good stabilizer for frostings. Good luck!
I want to try this recipe without using a cake box mix. What do you suggest I do?
Use a read velvet recipe, I have a scratch recipe on the blog, and replace some of the liquid called for with strawberry puree! Good luck!
Have you ever tried any of the red food coloring alternatives like using beets to get red coloring or raspberries or even beet powder?
You have to use fresh beets and then roast them to get the color. It can be done with takes a bit of prep work.
I’ve tried fresh beets using some vinegar as well but the color still turns pink. I also heard dried hibiscus flowers work for the red coloring. Either way I thought you’d want to try it since you’re allergic so you can enjoy the fruit of your labor 🙂
Thanks! I usually don’t really eat what I bake. If I did, I would not be able to make it out the door! I get to feed neighbors, cute boys, and random strangers my desserts instead 🙂
So you didn’t soften the cream cheese, but you did soften the butter? Just wanted to make sure:)
Honestly, I usually always pull it right out of the fridge and throw it into the mixer. Just make sure you beat it well with the butter.
I kept having a problems with my icing collapsing when I set it out and let it soften but now I set my butter out for only 10 minutes and use my cream cheese straight from the fridge. Now it comes out perfect.
Great to know! When I was in Oregon I would let my cream cheese set out but I live in a hotter place now, so I use it straight from the fridge. I think climate must play into it all!
Your pictures are sooooo good that I noticed something sparkly on the frosting. What did you sprinkle on the cupcakes for the bling?
It’s called sanding sugar, it’s a type of sprinkle and you can get it in all different colors.
So do you make the actual cake mix or do you just use the dry ingredient. Because the box also asks for three eggs. Just wondering if you make the cake mix also.
Use the dry mix as in ingredient!
I am such a big fan of your website. Your ctc cupcakes were the best EVER!
I can’t wait to try these ones out too!
Thanks for being such a stellar help to the cooking world!
Hi Lizzy-
Is it a 1/2 cup strawberry puree or a half cup of strawberries pureed?
Thanks!
1/2 cup of the strawberry puree!
Can I make this as a cake instead of cupcakes?
Of course!
Hi, these sound so interesting! Can you taste the strawberry in the cake? Sounds like a silly question but I wanted to ask before I made them for this particular occasion. They sound delicious but strawberry’s were the request. Thanks, I love your book and website! I am a big fan!
They do taste fruity! You can pair them with a strawberry buttercream to really get the strawberry taste!
Made them and they fell. I was so sad. So the next pan I cooked longer but they sunk in again? Weird but i still ate them and they were fruity and delicious! They came out really dense and heavy, is that normal? I know falling is not but just wondering about the texture! Thanks!
If it’s too dense for your liking you can use less sour cream! As for the falling… try putting your pan in the hot oven for 5 minutes and then pulling it out, putting in the liners and then the batter and baking them!
Hi Lizzy. So, just to confirm something as I’d like to try this recipe this weekend – the box cake mix must just be used as a dry ingredient i.e. I must NOT actually make up the cake by adding the extras referred to on the box as well as your extra ingredients? I must just use the dry ingredients from inside the box and then add the extra’s referred to in your recipe. Correct? Many thanks.
Correct. Disregard everything the box says and just use the mix as an ingredient!
Hi Lizzy. Just to let you know that I did make them this weekend and they were divine! Took them to a family get-together on Sunday and everybody loved them. The way that the strawberry puree is referred to in the recipe made me think that it was 1/2 cup strawberries pureed and so I probably used too little strawberry puree (as I note from someones question above that it was supposed to be 1/2 cup of puree strawberries), but no harm done, they were great anyway. I also used full fat Greek yogurt instead of sour cream and it worked perfectly. LOVE the idea of using box cake! Oh, and my box cake was 500g of dry mixture.
Um Hello Yes This May work I Will See On My Birthday Thanks !
If I wanted to add the 1/2 cup strawberry puree to any other recipe, which liquid should I substitute it for?
The milk or buttermilk!
Hi Lizzy, could I use frozen strawberries or dies it need to be fresh? And how much regular size cupcakes does this recipe make?
Frozen will be fine! Just make sure to drain off any water if you heat them and the ice on the outside of them melts.
I adore your website and recipes!! One question for you, though… HOW do you come up with these amazing concoctions ?!
Cupcakes and flavor combinations have turned into my life! I think about it all the time, hopefully the river of ideas doesn’t run dry in my head 🙂
How many cupcakes does this make?
20-24 depending on how big you make them!
hi like try making these cupcakes from scratch which liquid replace some of the liquid called for with strawberry puree!
You can replace it with part of the milk or buttermilk used in the scratch recipe!
I am looking for a strawberry cake recipe for a 1/2 sheet cake and love the ingredients in this recipe. Sour cream makes such a difference in a recipe. I wanted to know what does the Red Velvet cake mix do for this recipe that the French Vanilla wont. I do use Duncan Hines cake mixes. Also I use your recipes for my home based cake business and they are amazing. .
The red velvet cake mix makes it red velvet, you can swap in a vanilla cake mix if you want!
If I were to make the red velvet from scratch and use the strawberry purée in place of milk.. Would I only use the 1/2 cup called for in your recipe or would I need to match the amount of milk in the red velvet recipe?
I would use only about 1/2 or up to 2/3 cup strawberry puree and then use milk for the rest!
Lizzy: I am making 100 Strawberry cupcakes this month with strawberry preserves piped in the center of the cooled cupcake, topped with your icing and a strawberry. Any idea what I should charge for these, since they are more involved than a standard iced cupcake? Help!
I just wanted to clarify, since there are so many weights available at my food store, how many ounces are the boxes that you use for your cake mix? we have anywhere from 15.25 to 18.25 oz boxes and I can never seem to find out what size you’re using or how to adjust the recipe accordingly
I use 15.25 now! The only difference is the liquid amount!
Hi. So I just made these and I ended up having way too much wet mixture. Maybe it’s a smaller box cake but we added and wet mixture to the dry mixture slowly but when they have come out of the oven they have more of a pudding texture still delicious but not exactly the desired effect. What size is the cake mixture you use?
Thanks
Emily
I used a box for 24 cupcakes!
Hey ! they look so beautiful and i am considering to make them tomorrow. But i will just need 5 or 6 cupcakes. How many of them could you be able to make with this recipe ? and what is your recommandations for 5 or 6?
Thank you already !
How many cupcakes does this recipe make?
Thanks
Jo
I have been eyeing your recipe for some time now and finally has time to make some. My cupcakes don’t really taste like strawberries. I use sour cream instead of Greek yogurt. My cupcake kind of taste like milk in a way.. What did I do wrong?
If I was to make these Vanilla instead of Red Velvet I wouldn’t change anything besides the cake mix, right?
HI! Can i use Strawberry food color instead of Red?
Hello! I want to make these for a friend, but I am wondering if they have any kind of chocolate taste to them due to the red velvet? She’s not a big chocolate fan. Thanks!!!
I don’t know what I did wrong but the cupcakes fell as soon as I took them out of the oven and I left them in longer because the toothpick never came out clean. Very frustrating, I don’t think I’ll use this recipe again.
Would you recommend serving these as soon as they finish? What do you think is their shelf life pre consumption?
I used the Betty Crocker Red Velvet mix and my cupcakes have all collapsed. Should I have added flour since this recipe included a lot more wet ingredients than what the mix instructed?
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