Valentine's Day Strawberry Cupcakes

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! 

I wanted to share with you a strawberry cupcake recipe I made today. Whether you're single or in a relationship, you'll definitely love these strawberry cupcakes!

I must admit, I had to improvise a bit on this recipe because: 1) I only had exactly 6 tablespoons of butter available, 2) I don't have a cupcake pan that fits into my counter top oven, and 3) I wanted PINK cupcakes so I added some food coloring. However, I was determined to make these cupcakes and in the end I think they turned out pretty well.

The recipe I used is adapted from this one. I went over the reviews and made some of the suggested changes, plus, I also added my own.

CUPCAKE RECIPE:
Ingredients:
-6 tablespoons (tbs) butter at room temperature
-3/4 cup sugar
-2 eggs
-1 1/2 tbs strawberry extract
-4-5 drops of red food coloring (if you want pink cupcakes)
-1 3/4 cup self rising flour
*** or if you don't have self rising flour like me, use 1 3/4cup flour, 2 teaspoons (tsp) baking powder and 1 tsp salt
-1/4 tsp salt
-1/2 cup fresh or thawed finely chopped strawberries
-1/2 cup milk

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 325F (165C).

2. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time and then stir in the strawberry extract and food coloring. Add the milk. Combine the self rising flour and salt and stir into batter just until blended. Fold in strawberries last. spoon into baking cups.
*Now, this is one of the places where I improvised. I used 2 baking cups per cupcake so they would hold up better and I placed them in a baking dish. The cupcakes came out kind of  with a wonky shape but taste-wise they were delicious! Strawberry cupcakes are strawberry cupcakes regardless of their shape and size. ;)

Here's a pic of my wonky-shaped cupcakes:

As I mentioned before, I didn't have any more butter for the frosting so I decided to go with a simple glaze instead. Oh, and of course I was also running low on confectioner's sugar so I just used what I had. All you need are 4 ingredients.

FOR THE FROSTING:
Ingredients:
-1 cup confectioner's sugar (I only used 3/4 cup because that's all I had)
-5 tsp milk
-1tsp vanilla or any other flavoring (I used 1/2 strawberry and 1/2 vanilla)
-1-2 drops of food coloring (optional)

Directions:
1. Place confectioner's sugar, flavoring, coloring and 3 tsp of the milk in a bowl together. Mix.
2. Gradually add the remaining milk until it reaches the desired consistency.
3. Pour a spoonful onto cupcake and spread evenly.

Enjoy!