Strawberry Cupcakes for Mike's Birthday

It's been a little while since I posted - I was trying not to eat so many sweets and lets face it, when there are fresh baked - well anything - there is just no resisting it.  Certainly, that is no excuse for not posting this one.  I baked these "Real Strawberry Cupcakes" for Mike's Birthday on March 27.  They were just about perfect - moist, flavorful and not to sweet.  The frosting is a cream cheese frosting, and the garnish is nothing other than a slice of fresh strawberry and a little sprinkle of shimmering sugar.  I found the recipe on allrecipes.com, but changed it up just a bit - recipe to follow.

Cupcake Ingredients:

8 large fresh strawberries, or as needed

2 eggs

1 cup white sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 Tablespoons instant vanilla pudding mix

Frosting Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup cream cheese, softened
4 Tablespoons butter, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Strawberries for garnish
Shimmering Sugar for garnish

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  line cupcake pans with cupcake liners (about 15)
2. Place 8 strawberries into a blender, and blend until smooth.  Pour the puree through a strainer to remove seeds.  Puree should equal about 3/4 cup.  Set the puree aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, white sugar, vegetable oil, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, lemon zest, and strawberry puree until well combined.  Stir in the flour, baking powder, salt and vanilla pudding mix.  (The recipe called for a drop of red food coloring at this point - I skipped it - the cupcakes came out a light brown color, similar to that of a spice cupcake).  Spoon the batter into the prepared cupcake cups, filling each about 2/3 full.  (This mix should have made more than 12 cupcakes.  I stuffed all the batter into the 12 it called for and obviously, as you can see in the above picture, they overflowed and I had to trim them just to get them out of the pan.)  Next time, I will use better judgement.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until the cupcakes have risen and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 23 minutes.  Allow the cupcakes to cool at least 20 minutes before frosting.
5. To make frosting, beat cream cheese and butter together in a mixing bowl with an electric mixer until smooth, and mix in confectioner's sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract to make a lump-free icing.  Frost each cupcake with about 2 tablespoons of icing and top each with a strawberry slice and some shimmering sugar.