Vegan Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes

Step 1

Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees. Take a muffin tin line it with liners and set it aside.

Step 2

Make your vegan buttermilk by taking an empty liquid measuring cup, adding 1/2 TB white vinegar to your 1/2 cup of vegan milk, set aside.

Step 3

Get a medium mixing bowl put all your dry ingredients and mix.

Step 4

Take your cold butter and cut it into small pieces, then add it to the flour and cut in with a pastry cutter until it's coarse crumbs and evenly distributed.

Step 5

Add your extracts to the vegan buttermilk and then pour the buttermilk/extracts into the flour mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until incorporated, don't over stir.

Step 6

Take your prepared muffin tin and put a golden oreo in each liner. Then take a small to medium cookie scoop and scoop an even amount of batter in each muffin tin over the oreo cookie. *this is a thick batter. Now take your strawberry that's cut to size so it doesn't stick out of the cupcakes too far and shove the flat side down through the middle until it hits the cookie. *see photos if this is confusing. Repeat until all the cupcakes have a strawberry in the middle.

Step 7

Bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes. Check with a toothpick at 12 minutes to see if it's done, don't overbake. Let cool completely before frosting.

Step 8

While your cupcakes are cooking chop your strawberries place the strawberries in a small saucepan and cook for about 5 minutes stirring constantly to reduce the liquid. Or you can do this in the microwave by putting it in a 2 cup liquid measuring glass and cooking it for 1 minute, then at 30-second intervals until it has reduced to 1/4 cup. Set aside and cool completely before making the frosting. I stick mine in the fridge to cool quicker.

Step 9

Make your frosting. Take a medium mixing bowl and add your vegan butter, whip this for 1 minute, then add 2 cups of your powdered sugar add your cooked strawberry and mix for 2-3 minutes. Add more powdered sugar if you need to. If your frosting gets curdled try warming it up by getting a larger bowl, filling it with warm water, then add the frosting bowl into the bath without getting any liquid in the frosting. Let it warm up for a few minutes then whip it again for a few minutes, This isn't a pipping frosting. It's more of a soft melt in your mouth frosting.

Step 10

Frost your cooled cupcakes and enjoy!