Strawberry cupcakes with fresh strawberries

Strawberry cupcakes are my weakness.  There is one of those fancy cupcake stores near my house that sells the most delicious strawberry cupcakes for only $3.99 each!!  Yikes.  I only treat myself occasionally since they are also full of sugar and fat.  I have really been craving one this week so I decided to make my own.

Here are the unfrosted cupcakes straight out of the oven. Nice pink color with no fake dyes!!

Strawberry Cupcakes
12 oz fresh strawberries or can use frozen unsweetened
1-2 tsp sugar

Cut the fresh strawberries into small pieces and sprinkle with sugar.  Let sit about one hour. Then puree in your blender. Makes about 1.5 cups of puree.

2 1/4 cups cake flour (lighter than regular flour but you can use regular all-purpose)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup splenda or stevia substitute ( you will need less stevia maybe 1/2 cup)
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
6 TBSP butter at room temperature
1/4 cup Greek yogurt

3/4 cup strawberry puree
1/4 cup almond milk or regular milk
6 egg whites
2 tsp. vanilla

In a mixer, combine flour, baking powder, sugar, splenda and salt.  Add butter and Greek yogurt and mix until the mixture is course and crumbly.  In a separate bowl, mix puree, vanilla, milk, and egg whites.  Add the liquid to the dry mix and blend about 2 minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Makes 20 cupcakes.

Each cupcake contains 123 calories, 3.3g fat, 20g carbs and 2.8g protein.

I used vanilla protein powder, Greek yogurt and more strawberry puree to make a healthy frosting!! Delish!!