Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes

Strawberries are in season. They are at their best right now! And it won't be long before you won't find them at the market! I wanted to make as much use as possible this year, and amongst other things, have found this great recipe for strawberry cupcakes.

These cupcakes are exactly what I was looking for! So good!

To be honest, I searched high and low and could not find many recipes that didn't have some kind of essence, or weirdly enough, jelly powder that was strawberry flavoured. others used pink colouring, but all I wanted was an all natural recipe that tasted like strawberries. Maltese strawberries are so intensely flavoured that i figured there is no need for any kind of essence! I also wanted a light, moist cake. Nothing too heavy, nothing too dense.

I'm in love with these cakes. they are the cutest things ever! I much prefer natural decorations when possible!

I came across a recipe here which was quite similar to what i wanted, so I adapted it (changed the frosting, changed the milk into yoghurt for added moistness and fluffiness of cake), so here's my version :)

If you want the topping to be something a little more "frosting" like, please see the website above. I opted for a fresh cream topping as the cakes were so delicious, delicately strawberry flavoured and sweet, that with the added strawberry on top, all I felt they they needed was a little creamy freshness rather than a heavy cream cheese based frosting. But horses for courses of course :D

Happy cupcakes :D

Strawberries and Cream cupcakes (makes about 16 large cupcakes)

STRAWBERRY SAUCE
2 cups of fresh strawberries, cut in half and stem removed
1 tablespoon demarera/cane sugar

***NOTE!!! Keep the prettiest tiniest strawberries for decorating. (I make more sauce than i need, and am freezing it in portion size for this cake, so that I can make fresh strawberry cakes all year around!)

CUPCAKES

115 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup caster sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or extract if unavailable - no essence!!!)
1 and 1/3 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
pinch salt
1/2 cup strawberry sauce
1/4 cup natural yoghurt (runny, not greek)

WHIPPED CREAM TOPPING
Fresh cream for whipping

approx 2 tablespoons icing sugar (to taste)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Directions:

STRAWBERRY SAUCE

Macerate the strawberries by adding about 1 tablespoon of sugar to them, stirring and leaving for 15 minutes.

Put strawberries (with all the juices) in to a small-medium pan

Bring to the boil then reduce the heat to medium-low.

Cook strawberries for approximately 15 minutes till strawberries become soft and mushy.

Cool, and blend into a purée. Cool before using in recipe. (I actually did this the day before)

Red red strawberries make red red sauce :)

CUPCAKES

Preheat oven to 170C. Line cupcake pans with cupcake papers.

Sift flour with baking powder, bicarb and salt. Set aside.

Measure out Yoghurt and strawberry sauce together. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar in a free standing electric mixer until light and fluffy. And I mean, do not stop creaming until the butter mixture is almost white. Scrape down the sides with a spatula each minute or so. This will take about 3 minutes.