• Where have I been? Have mercy on me, I am the size of a house. Carrying twins is a one way ticket to losing all sense and sensibility. I have been managing my show on the radio simply because my guests are fabulous! But my own baking has been on hiatus. That is, until I started seeing fresh Oregeon strawberries in my twitter and instagram feed. Ooh lala! They are beautiful, sweet, delicious! I needed to make a cupcake in honor of them. The thing is, I also crave lemon. No problem – a combo of both will do the trick!
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INGREDIENTS:

• 3 cups self-rising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room
• temperature
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons lemon zest
• 1 cup whole milk, divided
• 2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2/3 cup pureed fresh strawberries ( I used about 1 cup fresh in my blender)
• Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
• 1 cup unsalted butter – room temperature
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk
• Food coloring (not required!)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line 30 cupcake pan cups with paper liners.

2. Sift the self-rising flour and salt together in a bowl. In another bowl, beat the unsalted butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating each egg until incorporated before adding the next. Mix in the vanilla extract and lemon zest.

3. Gently beat the flour mixture into the butter mixture, one third at a time, alternating with half the milk and half the lemon juice after each of the first 2 additions of flour. Beat until just combined; do not over mix. Slowly fold in the strawberries

4. Fill the prepared cupcake liners with batter 3/4 full, and bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool in the pans for about 10 minutes before removing them to finish cooling on a rack.

5. For the Frosting – whip the butter until it turns white ( about 5-6 minutes on medium high) Slowly add one cup of powdered suger 1 cup at a time, milk and extract in between cups of sugar. Coloring last. Frost completely cooled cupcakes! ENJOY!

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