Easy Strawberry Crunch Cupcakes

Vanilla and strawberry cupcakes inspired by the strawberry shortcake crunch ice cream bar.

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Preheat the oven to 350°F. Fill a 12-cavity muffin tin with cupcake liners.
The frosting and strawberry crunch can be made ahead of time, but it is not necessary. Bring the frosting to room temperature before using.

Thoroughly whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, oil, lemon juice, vanilla and almond extract. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold with a rubber spatula just until there are no longer any streaks of flour.
Using a large cookie scoop or a ¼-cup measuring cup, scoop batter into each cavity of the prepared pan just ½ the way up the sides. Place about ½ teaspoon of strawberry jam in each cavity. Gently swirl it into the batter with a toothpick or metal cake tester.
Place about 1 tablespoon of batter over the top of the jam.
Bake for 13-15 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

Beat the cream cheese on high with beaters or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment for 3-4 minutes or until completely smooth. Remove to a small bowl.
Place the room temperature butter in the stand mixer bowl or regular bowl that the cream cheese was just in. Beat on high for 3-4 minutes or until smooth and fluffy.
Add the cream cheese to the butter and beat for 1-2 minutes until thoroughly combined.
Add the powdered sugar and beat until combined. Add salt, lemon juice and vanilla. Beat until combined.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine all of the freeze dried strawberries with 10 of the vanilla sandwich cookies. Pulse until fine crumbs form.
Add the last 6 of the vanilla sandwich cookies. Pulse a few times just until they break down into slightly larger crumbs than the first mixture. You want to be able to see bits of cookie for texture variation. Set aside in a shallow dish.

Using a piping bag or an offset spatula, place a ¼-inch thick layer of frosting on top of a cupcake. I like to fit a piping bag with a coupler without a tip for this part. At this point, it does not have to be pretty. It is about to get smashed into the crunch. Repeat with the rest of the cupcakes.
Invert the cupcakes and gently press into the strawberry crunch crumbs to completely coat the top.
Add a small open star piping tip to the piping bag and place the coupler back on.
In a circular motion, pipe a small dollop of frosting in the middle of the cupcake on top of the crunch layer.
Garnish with a fresh strawberry, if desired. I used a small heart cutter to make tiny, heart-shaped strawberry pieces for garnish.