Strawberry & Vanilla Cupcakes (Makes 12)

It is Wimbledon season. And that means two things. Pimms and Lemonade and Strawberries and Cream. So, I have decided to post this recipe, which is for Strawberry and Cream cupcakes, as my homage to Wimbledon. Super easy to make, and extra easy to eat! Enjoy! 

Ingredients

Cake

120g butter

120g caster sugar

120g self raising flour

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1tsp baking powder

1-2 tbsp milk

12tsp strawberry jam

Icing

200g unsalted butter, softened 

400g icing sugar

2-3 tbsp milk (or cream)

4-5 strawberries (a handful)

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees, 160 fan or Gas Mark 4. Line your baking tin with 12 cupcake liners, or baking cups. 

Cream your butter, vanilla and sugar in a bowl and whisk until light and fluffy.  Add your eggs, one at a time, then add your flour and baking powder and combine, followed by your milk. 

Now put your cake mix in your cases, until about 2/3rds full. 

Pop in the oven for 18-20 minutes and then allow to cool on a wire rack. 

Once cool, grab yourself a chopstick, and stick it in your cake, and wriggle it around to make a little hole. 

Like so!

Now using a piping bag, pop your jam in each one. Now for the icing sugar!

Firstly, your strawberries. Take the green off the top of them and using a hand processor, blitz them until they are pureed. You need 2 tbsp of puree (if you have any extra it is great on ice cream!).

Now to make the buttercream. Whisk your butter until it goes pale, then gradually add in your icing sugar, followed by your milk. Whisk until light fluffy and lovely! You can do this by hand, with an electric handheld whisk, or with a food mixer. 

Now, take about 1/2 of the butter cream and put in a bowl. Add your strawberry puree. 

Now mix this all together. I added a touch of pink food colouring to add to the buttercream, but you do not need to do this. It should look like this: 

This buttercream will be too wet to pipe, so using a palette knife or spoon, I put this on the cake like so:

Now, with the remaining white buttercream, pipe a little rose on top of your strawberry frosting to make it look like a lovely English strawberry and cream cupcake! 

And there you have it. Game, set, match! Enjoy!