Strawberry-Almond Cupcakes
If you are anything like me, you love this time of year because of the berries! They are fresh, colorful and affordable. I could eat my weight in strawberries; love the sweet, bright fruit! I have seen so many blueberry, blackberry and strawberry recipes flying around the blog world lately and just have so many recipes that I want to try but they get eaten so quickly at my house that I can’t ever seem to get them into a dessert fast enough.
Enter: boxed cake mix. I know it seems strange to use a packaged mix, especially while strawberries are so good. But let me tell you, it works! The cake mix doctored up a bit and is light and fluffy and I love the bright pink color that the mix produces! I’m sure it would be wonderful with fresh berries in the mix but I would almost rather enjoy them myself. It is super simple and totally worth the help from the store. There is no pureeing the strawberries, no sifting, it pulls together in one bowl and is in the oven in minutes. And if nothing else, it’s a quick go-to recipe for a last minute cookout, birthday or celebration.
Buttercream is so versatile too. The almond compliments the strawberry so well. This buttercream recipe frosts 24 cupcakes with the Wilton 1M tip shown. …great for your Memorial Day cookout!
Strawberry Almond Cupcakes with Almond Buttercream
Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
1 (18.25 ounce box) Strawberry cake mix
4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp. almond extract
1/2 tsp. vanilla extractButtercream:
2 sticks butter, room temperature
3 – 4 cups powdered sugar
2 tsps. Almond extract
1 Tbs. milkDirections:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with paper liners or grease two 9-inch round cake pans.
Combine cake mix, eggs, buttermilk, oil and extracts in a mixing bowl, mix with a whisk attachment on high for 1 minute, until all clumps are broken up. Pour into tins or cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean and the tops spring back after being touched.
Allow cakes to cool on a wire rack before frosting.
To make the buttercream: using a paddle attachment beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer on high until fluffy. Add powdered sugar in small batches, fully incorporating into the butter after each addition until the desired consistency is reached. Whip in the extract and milk. Add more powdered sugar to increase the thickness, more milk to thin it out.
Cupcake recipe slightly adapted from Gimme Some Oven
Print Recipe
I want one….or two! I just love almond butter cream and I can imagine it is wonderful with the strawberry almond-cake! Great idea to make 12 cupcakes and a round too!
Like the suggestion of the vanilla chips add in. Strawberries and almond are a really good flavor combo. Your pictures are super! Thanks for posting.
Looks yummy, greats flavours!! And the presentation is really nice
Good tip about the chips! I've never heard that, but I'll try it. Your cupcakes look fabulous…and you piped that buttercream to perfection (a skill I'm still trying to learn!).
As much as I love to bake from scratch, I do stock up on cake mixes when one of the stores sells them for 99 cents each. They are so easy to spruce up with add-ins and extra touches. I agree with Lizzy – your piping on those cupcakes is gorgeous.
I am a big fan of boxed cake mixes. This looks delicious!
I love almond extract in buttercream! It gives such a depth of flavor.
Never used this combination of strawberries/almonds but it looks great. Have to try to do some cupcakes myself
I LOVE strawberry cupcakes and the strawberry cake mix is my favorite! What a great idea to add almond extract, I'm going to try this out. Thanks so much for the great recipe. 🙂 YUM!
This really sounds promising. I'll have to give it a try. This is my first visit to your site, so I decided to take some time to browse through your earlier entries. I'm so glad I did that. I really like the food and recipes you share with your readers and I'll definitely be back. I hope you had a wonderful holiday. Blessings…Mary
Ohh I love strawberry cupcakes- perfect for summer! I've never used the cake mix. I'll be sure to try it soon!
I had no idea freezing keeps the chips from falling to the bottom! These look so good.
Sadly, no strawberry cake mixes down under. Only a few mixes available so most everyone makes their own. Makes me a bit homesick 🙂
These sound amazing – strawberry and almond! They are so pretty too! And who doesn't love a good box mix,, right!
So good! I'm all about using boxed cake mix. Strawberries are pretty expensive here but mangoes are in season and I bet I can make just as delicious cupcakes with some of those 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
What an incredible summer treat. Thank you for bringing this to my virtual picnic
Cassie, your cupcake caught my eye on The Culinary Lens picnic and your blog motto made a lasting impression here. Expressing love through food is something I try to do in my kitchen, too! Great cupcake (and frosting!) recipes!