Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes with Honey Buttercream

These cupcakes are one of my favourites for summer. I love the light lemony taste and the surprise of fresh strawberries in the cake. I have posted the recipe here. I made these for a BBQ for Victoria Day weekend and I loved the photos and had to share. 

It turned out to be a gorgeous weekend for the long weekend. They were calling for rain but it never came! I wanted something fresh and bright for the BBQ since the weather was starting to warm up, I wanted a desert that reflected that.  Plus the lemon syrup from this recipe did double duty in Sangria (recipe to come)! 

My roommate (and friends) seriously thought I was crazy, bringing my cupcakes (and props) outside to take photos in the grass. I would think they were used to my "cupcake photo shoots" by now but I guess leaving the kitchen was just too much for them to handle. Lol.  I love how the photos turned out and am so glad I didn't listen to their teasing. Do your friends bug you for taking blog photos? 

Strawberry and Lemon Cupcakes with Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

My friends have caught onto the fact that I love to make cupcakes and have begun to request cupcakes for their birthdays. Usually they come to me with a recipe, a specific flavour combination or send me a cupcake that they have pinned. My one friend however decided to give me a long list of about 10 different items that she liked and asked me to pick a few and make her a cupcake. 

Lemon, strawberries, honey and cheese cake were all on her list and stuck out at me. So I decided to make her a Strawberry Lemon cupcake with Honey Cream Cheese icing.  I had made the cake part of the cupcake before and used an Annie's Eats recipe (surprise, surprise).  It was my first time making the honey icing and it turned out great. It is one of my new favourites for sure. Now I just need to think of something else that will go well with honey! 

Ingredients:

For the cake: 

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. salt

2 tsp. lemon zest

12 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup milk

2 cups fresh strawberries, chopped

Lemon Syrup 

1/2 cup water 

1/2 sugar 

2tsp lemon zest 

juice from 1/2 a lemon 

Icing: 

1 (8oz) package cream cheese 

1/4 butter 

1/4-1/2 honey 

1-2 cups icing sugar 

To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Line muffin pans with paper liners.  In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest.  Stir together with a fork and set aside.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until it is light and fluffy.  Add the sugar and beat until well combined.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition.  Add half of the flour mixture to the bowl and beat on low speed until just incorporated.  Add in the milk and mix until smooth.  Add in the remaining flour mixture and mix on low speed until just blended.  Fold in the fresh strawberries with a spatula.
Divide the batter evenly between the paper liners, filling them about 3/4 full.  Bake about 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pan 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the syrup bring water to a boil in a small pot. Add sugar, lemon zest and juice to the water. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Let simmer for a couple of minutes or until syrup has thickened slightly. 

To make the icing beat together cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy.  Add in 1 cup icing sugar, beat until combined. Add 1/4 cup honey.  Keep adding honey and sugar until desired taste/sweetness is reached.  ( I think I used just over a cup of icing sugar to add sweetness and volume to the icing and around 1/2 a cup of honey. I stopped adding the honey once I could clearly taste honey flavour in the icing). 

Enjoy!
Jaclyn

Ps. Did you notice I ran out of cupcake liners and had to use both Disney Princess and Black and White Flower ones.