Strawberry Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Icing

For one of my dear friend's birthdays, I decided to make her up something tasty. I remembered when, long ago, in a fit of needing some sweet treat, I had made some strawberry cupcakes with lemon icing (from store mixes and pre-made icings that I had laying around in my cabinets). I had loved these haphazard cupcakes and decided that they would be a good birthday cake for my friend, thus, this recipe was born:

Strawberry Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
1/2 cup room temp. butter
2/3 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6-8 strawberries, diced
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place cupcake liners in cupcake pans (I didn't have liners so I just used butter baking spray to thoroughly grease the cupcake pans)
Cream together sugar and butter
Add eggs, one at a time, beating each egg completely into the mixture before adding next egg
Add vanilla extract
Add diced strawberries, beat well (you can also add red food coloring if you want, as just using real strawberries will not change the color of your baked cupcakes)
In a separate bowl mix flour, baking powder, and salt
Add 1/2 of flour mixture to butter mixture, mixing well
Add milk
Add rest of flour mixture, beat until smooth
Place cupcakes in your cupcake pan, evenly filling each slot, and bake for 18-20 minutes (until a toothpick inserted in cupcakes comes out clean)

Icing:
Ingredients:
1 cup of softened butter
1 package of softened 8 oz cream cheese
3 cups of confectioners' sugar
3 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:
Cream together butter and cream cheese with mixer
Add sugar, one cup at a time, mixing each cup thoroughly before adding next
Add lemon juice and vanilla, mix thoroughly
(note: if mixture is to thick add milk by the tablespoon to thin it out enough to ice your cupcakes, I found that the consistency without milk worked perfectly, though)

Ice your cupcakes once they have cooled =)

Enjoy!!