Strawberry Crunch Cupcakes with Cheesecake Filling
These strawberry crunch cupcakes are light, crunchy and filled with sweet strawberry compote. Topped with cream cheese frosting and crunchy crumbles, these cupcakes are the best summer dessert!
Ingredients
Cupcake base
- 12 Golden Oreo cookies*
- 160 g cake flour* (1 ¼ cups)
- 60 g sugar (⅓ cup)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 egg, large, room temp
- 60 g vegetable oil (¼ cup)
- 80 g sour cream or buttermilk (⅓ cup)
- 60 g butter, melted & cooled (¼ cup)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract
- 10 g freeze dried strawberry pieces* (approx. 2 tbsp)
Strawberry filling
- 200 g strawberries, fresh (1 cup)
- 5 g lemon juice (1 tsp)
- 40 g sugar (¼ cup)
- 2.5 g corn starch (1 tsp)
- 30 g water (1 tbsp)
Crunchy crumbles
- 10 plain vanilla cookies
- 5 g freeze dried strawberries (approx. 1 tbsp)
Cream cheese frosting
- 200 g white chocolate, melted (1 ¼ cups)
- 200 g butter, cold (1 cup)
- 300 g cream cheese, cold (1 ⅓ cups)
- 5 g strawberry powder* (approx. 2 tsp)
Instructions
Cupcake base
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (350°F) fan assisted. Line a cupcake tray with 12 cupcake liners. There's no need to grease the tray.
- In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and soda. Add in the salt, sugar and dried strawberry pieces then give everything a good whisk to combine well.
- Add in the wet ingredients: sour cream (or buttermilk), egg, melted and cooled butter, vegetable oil and vanilla. Use a whisk to combine everything until you get a sticky batter.
- Place one golden Oreo at the base of each cupcake liner, then add one scoop of batter over it. Do not fill to the brim of the paper, only about ¾ of the way.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool in the tray for 10 minutes, then place on a cooling rack to cool fully.
Strawberry filling
- Cut the strawberries in smaller pieces, then add to a saucepan. Add in the sugar, lemon juice and salt. Give everything a quick mix and cook over low-medium heat until the strawberries become softer. Try not to mix too much, as this will crush the pieces.
- Separately, combine the corn starch and water. Add the mixture to the strawberries, mix gently to combine and cook for 2-3 minutes. The strawberry filling should thicken up, but still be quite runny with larger pieces.
Crunchy crumbles
- Add the cookies and dried strawberries to a food processor and blitz a few times to crush into smaller pieces. Alternatively, use a ziplock bag and a rolling pin to crush them. Place in a bowl for later use.
Strawberry cream cheese frosting
- Follow my step-by-step method to making perfect White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting every time. Add the strawberry powder to the prepared frosting at the end.
Assembling the Cupcakes
- Use a cupcake corer to remove the core of the cupcakes.
- Fill in the hole with strawberry filling. Do not overfill.
- Cover the top of the cupcake in cream cheese frosting, levelling it with a spatula.
- Dip the iced cupcakes in crunchy crumbles, pressing gently to help it stick to the frosting.
- Pipe a small dollop of cream cheese frosting in the middle of the cupcake.
- Decorate with a few drops of strawberry filling and strawberry halves. ¼
Notes
- I recommend using a kitchen scale in grams for more accuracy. The cups used for the conversion are standard US customary cups (1 cup flour = 136g). There are many different types of cups across the globe, which is why I strongly recommend using grams instead.
- Golden Oreos can be replaced with any other vanilla-flavoured round cookies that can fit in a cupcake liner. For a lower calorie version, leave out the Oreos.
- Cake flour or type 000 flour yields a much softer cake. If you cannot find it, you can still use plain white flour, but the cake won’t be as fluffy. If using plain flour, only mix the flour with the butter for 1 minute.
- Freeze dried strawberry pieces cannot be replaced with fresh strawberries in the same quantities. If using fresh strawberries, cut in small pieces and add no more than 40g (¼ cup). The cupcakes may require a little longer in the oven by 2-5 minutes.
- To make strawberry powder, blitz freeze-dried strawberries in a blender or food processor until you get a fine dust. Alternatively, you can replace it with strawberry flavoured powder, such as Jell-O.
Nutrition
Calories: 499kcal
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