Strawberry Cupcakes

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners and set aside.

2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.

3. In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.

4. Add the egg, vanilla, and sour cream and mix until combined.

5. The freeze dried strawberries can be crushed to powder using a food processor, blender, or coffee grinder. If you don’t have any of those on hand, you can put them in a ziplock bag and use a rolling pin to crush them as fine as possible. Fold them into the batter.

6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined. Fold in the fresh strawberries by hand. The batter will be quite thick!

7. Using a large cookie scoop or two large spoons, fill 12 cups just over ¾ full of batter.

8. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean and the tops of the cupcakes spring back when touched. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

9. Beat butter by itself on medium until light and fluffy.

10. Add the powdered sugar and salt and mix on low until combined. Add the cream 1 tablespoon at a time until the frosting begins to get creamy and not too stiff.

11. Add the freeze dried strawberry powder to the frosting and mix until smooth.

12. Use a large star tip in a pastry bag to pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes. Cut the fresh strawberries in half length wise and top each cupcake with half a strawberry.