Strawberry Crunch Cupcakes

Strawberry cupcakes are the absolute best during the spring and summer months when strawberries are at their peak ripeness.

This cupcake recipe captures all the flavors of a strawberry shortcake ice cream bar, but with the addition of chocolate!

Their luscious appearance makes them ideal for any occasion, from birthday parties to baby showers, or just gatherings where you want to show off a bit and amaze everyone with your culinary skills. 

This recipe includes both fresh and dehydrated strawberries. With this mix, the cupcakes are absolutely bursting in strawberry flavor!

What Is In The Crunch?

Making the cupcake crunch is super easy. You will need Golden Oreos, dehydrated strawberries, and a bit of melted butter.

Start by blending the Oreos with dehydrated strawberries in a food blender. Make sure there are still a few chunks in the mix! You don’t want to blend the ingredients into a fine powder. 

Once these are blended, stir in melted butter until you have a coarse crumbly mixture.

If you are wondering if you can use dark Oreos, you can! However, the aesthetic results will not be so appealing.

The dark Oreos have cacao in them, as you know, and that dark cacao will just mask the tender strawberry color. You will have the flavor, but no contrasting visual appearance the golden Oreos provide.

Once you have your crunch made, set it aside and start making the cupcakes.

What Makes Up The Base Of The Cupcakes?

These cupcakes have a very simple base. Because they are topped with delicious ganache and strawberry Oreo crunch, I decided to keep the base pretty basic.

However, just because it is simple does not mean it lacks in flavor! It is super delicious and moist.

I used dark brown sugar for this recipe as this type of sugar can help keep some of the moisture. Plus, the brown sugar has a deep, caramelly, toffee-like flavor due to the added molasses, and who can resist caramel?

Besides brown sugar, there are some other common ingredients such as flour, baking powder, eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, and oil.

The mixture of vegetable oil and buttermilk will make your muffins even moister, which is a good thing, especially if you want to store them for a few days.

How To Make The Chocolate Ganache

The chocolate ganache is probably the easiest frosting to make out there. It is made with just two ingredients: chocolate and heavy cream.

The perfect ratio for stiff ganache that will stay in the place without losing its shape is 1:1, meaning you will need equal parts of chocolate and heavy cream.

If you like, though, you can even make the ratio 2:1, meaning 2 parts chocolate to 1 part heavy cream.

Be careful, though! Once it hardens, you will not be able to pipe it out.

If by some chance you do mess up this step (speaking from the experience here), just place the piping bag in a microwave for 10 seconds or under hot running water to soften the ganache. 

How To Make Strawberry Crunch Cupcakes

Step 1

Assemble your ingredients.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. 

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs with brown and white sugar, vegetable oil, buttermilk, and vanilla.

Step 2

Sift in flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cacao.

Step 3

Stir until you have a smooth batter. Spoon the batter into a 12-hole muffin tin, lined with paper liners. 

Bake the cupcakes for 20 minutes.

Step 4

Chop the chocolate into pieces and place it in a mixing bowl. In a saucepot heat heavy cream, until it almost boils, but do not bring it to a boil.

Once the bubbles appear around the edges, remove the heavy cream from the heat and pour it over the chocolate.

Let the chocolate sit in heavy cream for 2-3 minutes without stirring. Start to stir chocolate after 2-3 minutes and continue until you have a smooth mixture.

Place the ganache in a fridge until almost firm. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag and pipe on the cupcakes. Place the cupcakes in a fridge while you make the crunch. 

Step 5

In a food blender or processor, process the Oreos and dried strawberries. You should have a coarse mixture.

Combine the mixture with melted butter and stir until well combined. 

Step 6

Pull the cupcakes from the oven. Set them on a wire rack to cool.

Step 7

Top the cupcakes with chocolate ganache and the Oreo-strawberry crunch

Step 8

Decorate each cupcake with halved strawberries. 

Enjoy!

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