Strawberry Filled Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

These Cupcakes filled with glazed strawberries are popular everywhere I take them! They are a great way to use up fresh strawberries as well. Keep scrolling past the recipe for notes on how to fill the cupcakes with the Strawberry filling, without needing to use any special equipment!

This recipe was inspired by a Texas sheet cake recipe in my favorite Mennonite cookbook, “Country Kitchen Favorites.”

Prep time: 30 minutes

Bake time: 15-20 minutes

Yield: 2 dozen cupcakes

1 cup butter
1 cup water
2 1/2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs, beaten.
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup strawberry glaze of your choice (I used Marzetti glaze for strawberries).
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cup diced strawberries.
Cream Cheese Frosting or vanilla buttercream

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Preheat oven to 350.

In a small saucepan, melt butter with one cup water over medium heat. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, salt and baking soda together, then stir in beaten eggs, sour cream and vanilla extract. Add the warm (but not hot) butter and water mixture and stir gently to combine until there are no lumps remaining. Transfer cupcake batter to a measuring cup with a pour spout (you will need to work in batches unless you happen to have a large measuring cup that can hold all of the batter).
Line two 1 dozen cupcake pans with paper liners and fill each liner 2/3 full with the cupcake batter. Bake in the center of the oven (I usually bake each pan on a separate rack and then I like to switch them halfway through baking). Bake until the cupcakes are golden on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
While the vanilla cupcakes are baking, chop the strawberries into small chunks and combine them with the strawberry glaze. If there seems to be too much glaze you can add the last 1/4 cup of diced strawberries and vise versa with the glaze.
Remove the vanilla cupcakes from the oven and allow them to cool. Make the cream cheese frosting according to the Cream Cheese Frosting directions. Mix in a few drops of red food coloring (optional) until you get your desired color, then place the frosting into a piping bag with the frosting tip of your choice.
Gently core the cupcakes leaving 1/2 inch of cupcake on the bottom, then spoon in a teaspoon (roughly) of the strawberry filling. Take the center pieces of cupcake and cut off the tip creating a cap. Place the cap back onto the center of the cupcake filled with strawberry glaze.
Frost the cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting and keep refrigerated until ready to serve. Enjoy! Keep scrolling for notes and photos.

Note* These cupcakes were made for a baby shower and for the swirled effect I placed two different colors of Icing into my frosting bag (one shade of pink on each side). I believe it would have been a bit easier if I had used one of those cool frosting bag holders but a husband works as well. 🙂

Additional tips on filling the cupcakes with glaze and strawberries:

I didn’t have a cupcake corer on hand so I simply used a sharp pairing knife and cut a circle in the center of each cupcake 1 inch in diameter (yes, I actually got out my measuring tape and measured “haha”). Be sure to leave adequate cake on the bottom because honestly, who wants filling dripping out of the bottom?! For a few of the cupcakes that were a little sparse on the bottom I pressed some of the extra filling into bottom of the cupcakes.

Because you do not want a triangular shaped cap to top the center of the filled cupcake with, you can cut off some of the excess cake. I simply froze the extra bits of cupcake (waste not want not), they make a great little snack when you run out of sweets in the house!

You can also put a teaspoon of filling onto the center of the cupcake batter and swirl it in with a dinner knife if you do not have time to core each baked cupcake. But note that the strawberries will cook a bit with the batter and won’t taste quite as fresh.