I'm trying to perfect strawberry cupcakes and so far have struggled through many unsuccessful recipes. Anyone care to share an outstanding one?

i'm curios too. making strawberry cake from scratch is a difficult thing.

I always start with a white DH cake mix and doctor it. I've found that adding flavorings and keeping the strawberries out gives it a better texture. I add strawberry instant pudding, strawberry flavoring to taste or LorAnn strawberry oil, small carton strawberry yogurt, 4 eggs, 1/3 C. of oil, half buttermilk and half concentrated strawberry juice instead of the water. It's hard to find a strawberry juice so whatever juice you can find that's mostly strawberry. I then use a SMBC and add strawberry flavoring and strawberry preserves which has chunks of strawberries in it so you then get the strawberries. Everyone seems to really love these.

I've got a good one... here's what I do.
I use Serious_Cake's yellow cake recipe from her youtube videos as a base. Everything stays the same except the milk.
in place of milk -
let about 1 1/2 cupfrozen strawberries defrost . poor 1/4 cup sugar over them, microwave in 30 second intervals till sugar is dissolved and strawberries are soft enough to mash with fork. Mash with fork. Poor strawberry mixture into measuring cup and add milk to meet the 1 3/4 cups line.
Also add 2 teaspoon strawberry extract and pink coloring if desired.

I hope that makes sense! It's really good though. Not synthetic tasting.

you got me craving it and so i just tried this recipe: http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-1784-Jesse-and-Steves-Fresh-Strawberry-Cake.html its still warm, but i put the glaze over it like the recipe called for and it tasted like sweet and fluffy berry pancakes. not bad. i thought it would be dense but it wasnt.

Thanks for the ideas. I tried the WASC and added the berries per the instructions. Didn't like the texture and not enough flavor. Also tried Paula Deen's recipe with strawberry Jello. Those were better but kind of shrunk up. I also tried a strawberry cake recipe and the cupcakes first ran all over and then turned into big sink holes.
I'm anxious to try the ideas posted here. Thank you!

I hear ya'. I've tried many strawberry cake recipes that either tastes synthetic or not strawberry enough. So I played with the yellow cake recipe and ended up with something I'm happy with. Let me know if you try it

Martha Stewart Living Feb 2009 issue features cupcakes and has recipes for strawberry cupcakes and strawberry buttercream (it's SMBC). I haven't tried it but plan to for an order in mid-March.

antgirl - I tried that recipe. It was ok. I can't say I was too happy with the texture. The taste was good though.

this is the best strawberry recipe. I love it and have gotten tons of great feedback on it. If I'm covering the cake in fondant, I'll add the strawberries to the icing, if not and I want a nice white frosting, I'll make plain cream cheese frosting and use strawberry extract. I think it tastes best with strawberry filling too. It's another paula deen recipe

http://www.grouprecipes.com/41354/fresh-strawberry-cake.html

I tried the Martha Stewart recipe...not impressed. Maybe I just don't like strawberry cupcakes!

Petitesweets, I think if you make a doctored mix you would like the strawberry.

Grandma G,
Your recipe looks very good! I have never seen instant strawberry pudding. I did try a recipe with strawberry jello but thought it tasted artificial. Could I substitute vanilla pudding and add extra extract?
Thanks!

Yes, I think you could. I would use a white chocolate pudding mix if you can't find the strawberry. Make sure it's instant. Just put a lot of flavoring in it. I found a can of concentrated juice, not frozen, in the juice aisle that was mostly strawberry and used it as part of my water. I think they also make a strawberry coffee syrup too that would add a lot of strawberry flavor. I think they might just have the strawberry pudding mix out now because of the breast cancer awareness. It has a pink ribbon on it. I bought up a bunch just in case it was a short term thing. I just saw a bunch in the store yesterday. It is a JELLO brand. Also you could add strawberry milk syrup in your buttermilk or milk, whatever you are using. Just experiment until you get it how you want it.

I tried the Martha Stewart strawberry cupcakes recipe last night. Like some others of you, I wasn't thrilled with the result. The texture was so light that the cupcakes kind of sank under the weight of a fairly light frosting. I did like the tiny pieces of strawberry throughout the cake, though. So here's what I'm thinking.
I have a robust yellow butter cake recipe (which I have not tried to make cupcakes with before, but why wouldn't it work?). It's the yellow butter cake from the Wilton website and it's yuuuummmmmy. If I decrease the milk a little and fold in the strawberries, maybe it would be a more substantial cupcake that would hold up better and be less airy. (The cake tends to have the consistency almost of a pound cake.)
Do you Cupcake Pros have a rule of thumb for adapting a cake recipe to cupcakes, or does it usually work just fine?

I use the Stawberry Cake from Scratch posted in the recipe section on this site, and I have had great results with it. It's very yummy!

Christy

Antgirl - Any cake recipe will work for cupcakes. The problem with folding in strawberries is that you will need more levening to make the cake rise, and that throws off your whole recipe. Plus, adding strawberries alone won't add as much of a strawberry flavor as you'd think. Replace part of the milk or water with slushed up strawberries AND use strawberry extract/flavoring.