Lemon Strawberry Cupcakes

That's the simple name for these :). They're actually Lemon Almond Cupcakes with Lemon Curd Filling and an Almond Stawberry Honey Cream Cheese Frosting.

I've been watching too much Cupcake Wars.

Cupcake base: Ina Garten's Coconut Cupcakes.
minus the coconut
substituting buttermilk for coconut milk (b/c I just don't like buttermilk)
substituting the vanilla for more almond extract
adding about 1/2 cup of fresh-squeezed lemon juice (2 1/2 lg lemons) and
adding the zest of 3 lemons (Zest is WHERE IT'S AT.)

Why her recipe as the base? Because I've tried it as a base before (w/ coconut milk and w/o coconut) and it's amazing. So many eggs, so much butter - it just doesn't get any better than that.

I had an extra lemon on hand, and have seen cupcake recipes for lemon and blackberry or lemon and blueberry. So I picked up a few more lemons at the store, but strawberries were on sale, whereas the other berries weren't.  So that's how the lemon-strawberrys idea was born. And as I looked up lemon cupcake recipes, the idea snowballed into that above super long name.

Lemon Curd Filling: Chockylit's Blackberry, Lemon, Vanilla Cupcakes.
Just used the lemon curd recipe as is. Didn't double it.
If I let it sit for just a minute, it would get white and frothy on top.

But when I stirred it, it would be bright yellow again.

Then I took out a little spot in the center of the cupcakes...

...And filled it in with super super yummy lemon curd *lip smack!*

Almond, Strawberry, Honey Cream Cheese: Lizzy Mae's Honey Almond Cream Cheese Frosting.
Added a container of strawberries, pitted and chopped
Doubled the recipe (probably shouldn't have, but it's okay b/c it's heaven on my tongue)

I obviously didn't go for the fancy look of piping the frosting. I just spooned it on. It didn't seem thick enough to pipe and I worried the bits of strawberry were too big for piping.

Put it all together - deliiiiiiiiiiiicious!!