Cream-Filled Vanilla Cupcakes With Strawberry Buttercream

Very special cupcakes. Start with a simple Martha Stewart recipe for cupcakes, add a rich creamy filling, and top with an even richer strawberry buttercream made with fresh strawberries and real butter! Lovely for a baby shower, a girls birthday, or a ladies tea. Adapted from "Confessions of a Tart".

• Ready In: 47 mins
• Yields: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

• Vanilla Cupcakes

• 3  cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1⁄2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1⁄2 cups sugar
• 4  large eggs
• 2  teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1⁄4 cups milk
•  optional about 1 cup prepared light  pastry cream or   vanilla pudding

• Strawberry Buttercream

• 1  cup butter, room temperature
• 1  cup strawberry, pureed (I measured out the strawberries first and then pureed them)
• 3 -4  cups powdered sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line two standard 12-cup muffin tins with pink paper liners; set aside.
3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
4. Cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each egg. Add vanilla.
5. Reduce speed to medium. Mix in 3 batches of flour mixture, alternating with 2 batches of milk. Raise speed to medium-high; mix until thoroughly blended, 10 to 20 seconds.
6. Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full with batter; do not over-fill.
7. Bake until a cake tester inserted into centers comes out clean, about 17 minutes.
8. Let cool in tin on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from tin and decorate.
9. If filling with cream, use a small spoon or the tip of a knife to make a small hole in the center of each cupcake, going about half way through the cupcake. Fill the hole with cream and then pipe buttercream on top.
10. Make Strawberry Buttercream:
11. Cream the butter in the mixer on medium-high speed for about 3 minutes. On slow speed, gradually add about 2 cups of powdered sugar and turn back up to high for a few minutes to really incorporate the sugar. Turn to slow speed again and fold in the strawberries. Add more sugar until desired consistency is achieved. Once all the sugar is incorporated, turn to medium-high for a few minutes to mix well.