Cream Stuffed Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes

April 4, 2016 by Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine 197 Comments

Strawberry shortcake in cupcake form! Stuffed with a strawberry coconut cream, these delightful, gluten-free, & vegan cakes will make you “berry” happy! Forget your old strawberry shortcake or dessert recipes!

Four reasons for this recipe. #1 It’s strawberry season, #2 I’d never made a homemade cupcake before this, #3 Cupcakes are “trending” right now, #4 Someone asked me to make a gluten-free strawberry shortcake recipe. So low and behold…I killed 4 birds with one stone. Actually, 5! Mother’s Day is next month and these cupcakes seem rather fitting!

If I’m going to make a dessert that has to be this special, I’m taking it up a notch! I’m also giving you a strawberry overload here. You may have noticed that these cupcakes don’t have any visible strawberries on them. That’s because they are blended IN to the batter and IN the stuffing!

What exactly are they stuffed with? CocoWhip! Yes! So Delicious CocoWhip! (i.e. that’s vegan coconut “Cool Whip” for all you newbies!). I was excited to be able to use my cupcake stuffer, pastry bags, and the CocoWhip! This basically was a touchdown recipe creation for me!

I do have one confession here. Although strawberry shortcake is a classic recipe, I’ve never had “real” strawberry shortcake. I know what it is, a lovely fully plain cake topped with fresh cream and strawberries. So I’m just hoping my handheld cupcake rendition with strawberries blended in and CocoWhip as the cream pleases the shortcake gods.

Actually wait, I’m lieing here. I have had strawberry shortcake in the past. Strawberry shortcake in the form of ice cream on a stick. You know what I’m talking about! The famous Good Humor “Strawberry Shortcake Dessert Bar“! Bits of soft cake coating on vanilla and strawberry ice cream? YEA!

I used to love those bars! I remember them being the prized possession to buy in the elementary school cafeteria. If those ice cream bars count, then yes, I’ve had my fair share of strawberry shortcakes! I’m totally craving one now! Damn, I should have recreated those!

I guess I’ll just have to keep making these cupcakes :/ That’s okay though, they’re sweet. They’re delicious. They’re BERRY good! I’m going to confess one more thing in this post. I said it was (is) strawberry season right now. It is and the grocery has had beautiful ON SALE containers of them. However, the week I put this cupcake recipe on my list to make, the grocery store had only a few $4-5 containers. Sorry, but I just couldn’t. So this recipe uses frozen strawberries, but that’s okay! You can use fresh or frozen!

It really was a cruel joke. The next two weeks after that, they’ve had tons of on sale $2 containers of perfect strawberries. Just my luck, but I refuse to be thwarted! Frozen fruits and veggies can be just as good as fresh. When you’re blended them up into puree anyway, it just makes sense to defrost in the microwave and blend! Easy as 1, 2, 3! I also used some new gluten-free pastry flour I found. That’s right, gluten-free party flour! Again, if you can’t find a gluten-free pastry flour you could use Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1. Pastry flour is just a lower protein blend compared to all purpose, but more than cake flour. Right in the middle for perfect fluffy baking!

Cream Stuffed Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes