Cupcakes with strawberries and whipped cream

Sam's 9th birthday
I have been making this cupcake recipe for years, after finding it published in the New York Times Magazine. It is incredibly easy, and practically no-fail. My cousin likes it so much she has requested it for her daughters' birthdays many years in a row. [My header photo consists of cupcakes made for Sam's wild west-themed birthday party a few years ago.] This year, we did a simple version with strawberries and whipped cream, because Sam loves strawberry shortcake. I experimented with decoration, eventually making a sort of flower-shaped arrangement with the strawberries, although if I had to do it over again, I kind of like this decoration:



The final product:


There is a cupcake missing from the pan (in the first photo) because I ate it. These cupcakes taste amazing when they are just out of the oven, still a little warm.

Update: I forgot to mention that instead of the buttercream frosting in the recipe, I made whipped cream from scratch (heavy whipping cream, mixed with a hand mixer with about 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla).

Update II: I also forgot to mention that the buttercream recipe makes about twice as much frosting as any normal human would need, unless you're one of those frosting fiends. My cousin had recently given the recipe to a friend and they were shocked at how much frosting it made, which I had realized when I first tried it but forgot to note it on the actual recipe. Oops.