Thursday, May 28, 2009

Mini Strawberry Cupcakes

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I am obsessed with Tastespotting, but unfortunately it is filled with lots of yummy, sweet summer produce, as lots of American's post recipes (and it's summer there - who'd've thought it, huh?). But here it is winter, so many of the delicious ingredients - ramps, strawberries - are not availiable, and thus, my recipes have to be shaken up and changed around. But strawberry. I am not a fan of the fruit as a whole (I know - how weird am I?), but I adore the flavour, and ridiculously fresh strawberries make the best flavour for cakes and the like. And I wanted strawberry cupcakes, damnit. Now! So once again, I compromised and sourced myself a good quality strawberry jam.

The cupcakes turned out this awesome cinnamony colour with a faint hint of sweet strawberry, and are so delicately soft. I can't say they are my favourite cupcakes ever (can we say chai cupcakes? Yum), but they are more than appealing and it's easy to eat two before even realising it. I topped them with a candy pink icing that I spiked with strawberry essence, and then got a bit sprinkle happy. So cute!

Without further ado!

Strawberry Cupcakes

125g butter, room temperature
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup strawberry jam, seedless (or just strained)
1tsp strawberry essence
2 eggs
1 cup flour
3tsp baking powder

1. Strain your jam. I find heating the jam up for a minute before hand to melt the sugar helps to make this easier.

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2. Add the butter, sugar, essence and eggs and cream together.

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3. Toss in your dry ingredients and combine. And then hey presto! You have a cupcake batter.

4. Spoon into your cases, and pop into an oven (which should be preheated to 180 degrees celcius) and let cook until they bounce back from the touch.

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5. Once they are cool, ice them.

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Basic Butter Cream

100g butter, room temperature
1tsp strawberry essence
Icing sugar
1 - 3 tbsp milk

1. In a bowl, combine your milk, essence (start low) and butter until they are light and fluffy.

2. Toss in your icing sugar - this always varies, so I haven't given a measurement. Just keep adding in icing sugar until you get the desired consistency. If you make it too dry, add a tablespoon of milk.

3. Put it in a piping bag and decorate!

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1 comment:

  1. OK, I am convinced... this recipe has inspired me to bake CUPCAKES this week, thank you!

    ReplyDelete