Strawberry Cupcakes

If you search around for "strawberry cake" on the internet, you will find a lot of recipes advising you to use "strawberry flavoring" or a box of strawberry jello in your cake mix.  I have used these tricks, and they do taste good, but it's a fake strawberry flavor.  I wanted to create a cake that really had the essence of true fresh strawberry flavor.  I cooked strawberries briefly to release the juices, and then squeezed the solids in a fine mesh strainer to get out as much juice as I could.  I cooked this juice down to half its starting volume, and used the concentrated strawberry syrup in the cake batter, and also in the buttercream.  I also put some of the strawberry solids in the buttercream, for delicious, juicy bits of real berry in every bite.  The result is cake and buttercream that truly taste like real, fresh strawberries!