Strawberry Shortcake Frosted Strawberry Filled Cupcakes

One of my favorite treats from ice cream trucks growing up were the strawberry shortcake ice creams.  These cupcakes have a strawberry shortcake topping over vanilla icing with a vanilla cupcake filled with strawberry jam and topped with a sweet strawberry. 

Ingredients:

Cupcakes-

1 ¼ cups all purpose flour

¼ cup quinoa flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup sugar

2 large eggs at room temperature

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon strawberry extract

1/3 cup strawberry jam (1 teaspoon per cupcake)

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 ripe banana mashed

2-3 strawberries thinly sliced

Vanilla Frosting-

1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ½ cups confectioners sugar

1 tablespoon heavy cream

Topping-

½ cup reduced fat vanilla wafers

½ cup freeze dried strawberries

1/3 cup rice crispy cereal

½ tablespoon coconut oil melted

Directions:

Cupcakes-

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line muffin tin with 12 liners.
2. Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl: flour, baking soda, salt.
3. Add eggs, banana, applesauce, extracts to mixer.  Mix on medium to mash bananas. 
4. Add sugar mix on medium.
5. Fold in dry ingredients mixing on low.
6. Use a medium cookie scooper to add 2 tablespoons batter to each liner.
7. Top with 1 teaspoon strawberry jam.
8. Add 1 tablespoon batter to cover each cupcake.
9. Top each cupcake with 1 strawberry slice.
10. Bake 20-25 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
11. Cool on wire rack.

Vanilla Frosting-

1. Add butter, extract, and heavy cream to mixer.  Mix on medium for 2-3 minutes.
2. Scrape down the sides.
3. Add confectioners sugar.  Mix on low speed.
4. Transfer icing to a bag or icer.  Use a round tip to pipe a swirl on each cupcake.

Topping-

1. Add cookies to food processor.  Pulse until a fine crumb.
2. Add strawberries and cereal.  Pulse to mix.
3. Add coconut oil.
4. Transfer to a medium bowl.
5. Use a spoon to sprinkle mixture over cupcakes.  Shake off the excess.
6. Save extra topping for another use (strawberry waffles, strawberry muffins, yogurt topping, etc…)