Strawberries and Cream Muffins!

For Valentine's Day last week, Nick gave Kenzie an Edible Arrangement.  It was pretty awesome and had pineapple, grapes, chocolate-covered strawberries, and lots and lots of regular strawberries!  Since it has now been a week since the big day, and we still had a lot of fruit left over, it was time to do some baking with fruit.  Luckily it was the perfect chance to whip up my favorite use for strawberries: strawberries and cream muffins!

Hurray for leftover strawberries and lovebug decorations :)

I love muffins, I love strawberries, and I love cream (okay not really that last part) - so these muffins are like the perfect thing for me.  I had made them over Christmas vacation and fallen in love, so I was thrilled to have a surplus of strawberries today.  The problem with baking with strawberries is that they disappear when you bake them; they turn into pinkish areas in the cake, but definitely do not stay in their berry form!  This recipe tries to fix that by pouring the batter into the cupcake cups, and then adding a layer of berries, then more batter, then sprinkling berries on top.  It keeps the strawberries intact and helps the muffins look rather adorable.  In addition, you also layer on some sweet cream (hence the strawberries and cream muffins!) in between the berries and batter.  The cream is absolutely delicious and adds to the cupcakes' amazingness.  It is safe to say that these are one of my favorite things to make - and eat.  If you ever end up with an extra cup of strawberries, there is absolutely no excuse to make these babies.

How cute are these?  Nice work with the cute cupcake decorators, Mom!

Recipe:
Strawberries and cream muffins