Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes - Eggless

These Soft Strawberry cupcakes are made using fresh strawberries and paired with yummy Strawberry buttercream.No artificial Strawberry flavor or color is used here. 

Ingredients:

For the Strawberry Cupcakes:

All purpose flour	¾ cup
Corn flour	½ tblsp
Baking powder	¾ tsp
Baking soda	¼  tsp
Salt	a pinch
Fine granulated sugar(Increase the sugar quantity if you want to make the cupcakes without frosting)	1/3 cup
Butter	¼ cup( 50 gms)
Thick curd	2 tblsp
Milk( see note below)	1/3 cup
Vanilla essence	1 tsp
Strawberry Puree(see note below)	3 to 4 tblsp

For the Strawberry Buttercream:

Butter	¼ cup
Icing sugar	1 cup
Milk	1 tsp
Vanilla essence	½ tsp
Strawberry Puree	2 to 3 tblsp

Method:

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• For the Strawberry Puree,Take around 4 to 5 big strawberries in a small mixer jar and blend well so that no big chunks are present.Small chunks are fine.The puree should be thick and not watery.Keep aside.   
• Preheat oven to 180 º C.Sift the Flour,Corn flour,Baking powder,Baking soda,salt twice.
• Melt the butter.Take the melted butter and sugar in a bowl and mix well with a whisk.Add the curd,vanilla essence and mix well till sugar is dissolved well.Now add the milk and mix.
• Add the sifted dry ingredients to this butter-sugar-milk mixture and mix well till there is no lumps.Don't over mix and mixing with a whisk is enough.
• Add the required strawberry puree to the batter and fold using a spatula.
• Spoon the batter evenly to a cupcake tray fitted with liners till 3/4 th full. Bake at 180 ºc  for around 18 to 20 mins or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Mine took exactly 20 mins to bake.
• Allow to cool in the tray for 5 mins.Take out the cupcakes from the tray and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Strawberry Buttercream:

• Take the butter (softened to room temperature) in a bowl and beat using an electric beater for about 5 to 7 mins till the butter becomes pale and fluffy.This step is very important.
• Now slowly add the sifted icing sugar little by little and beat till all the sugar is mixed well.
• Add the milk and beat for a minute.Now add the strawberry puree little by little till you get the desired colour,flavour and consistency.Add more icing sugar if the frosting is thin.
• Frost the cupcake as desired. 

Note:

• The cupcakes are not overly sweet.So increase the sugar quantity especially when making the cupcakes without buttercream frosting.
• All the ingredients like curd,milk etc must be at room temperature for getting good soft cupcakes.
• If after adding the strawberry puree in the cake batter the batter is very thick add little milk to get desired consistency as shown in the image above.
• The above quantity yields 6 cupcakes.