The cupcake trend has really taken off in the past year or so, with specialty cupcake shops popping up all around Melbourne. You really don't need to spend a fortune buying cupcakes for a special occasion because it is really quite simple to make make them yourself!
The secret to decorating a cupcake is simplicity! The trickiest part is piping the buttercream onto the cakes. You can have a practice first by piping onto some baking paper and then scraping it back into the mixing bowl. Be careful that you don't warm up the icing too much as it will not hold it's shape when you go to pipe onto the cakes.
By purchasing some roll-out icing from a cake decorating supplier, you can dye it and cut out some little shapes to use as decorations for your cupcakes. These shapes will keep in an airtight container for a few months.
I love this cupcake recipe! By
using real strawberries, it eliminates the artificial strawberry flavour that
you would get from just using strawberry essence. This recipe is my variation on
the Women’s Weekly butter cake recipe. While this recipe is for
cupcakes, you can cook it in a regular cake tin and extend the cooking time, to
make a bigger cake.
The buttercream recipe that I
use is Donna Hay’s recipe. As much as I dislike Donna Hay as a ‘TV personality’,
I have to admit that she has some fantastic recipes. I always use her recipe
for buttercream. It produces a thick and creamy icing that can be piped or
spread over any cake.
These cupcakes keep really well,
although once iced with buttercream, they need to be refrigerated. They can
also be frozen (un-iced) and thawed when needed.
Strawberry
cupcakes:
Makes 18
150g Fresh Strawberries
125g Unsalted butter – room temperature
1tsp Strawberry Essence
¾ cup Castor Sugar
2 eggs – lightly beaten
1 ½ cups Self-raising Flour
½ cup milk
Preheat oven to 170˚C (fan forced)
and line cupcake tins with patty pan liners.
Finely chop strawberries and
press into a sieve to remove as much juice as possible (catch the juice in a
bowl and keep for later). Set aside.
In a stand mixer (or using a
hand mixer) on medium speed, cream together the butter, sugar and strawberry
essence until light and fluffy.
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| Separated batter |
Gradually add the eggs with the
mixer still running. Only add in small amounts at a time and wait until it is
fully incorporated before the next addition. If the egg is added too quickly, the
mixture is likely to separate. If it has separated it will look like this:
To fix the batter, if it has
separated, add a heaped teaspoon of the flour and beat well before adding any
more egg.
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| Batter after adding egg |
Turn the mixer to low speed and
add half of the flour and mix until it is incorporated. Then add half of the
milk. When this is mixed in, repeat with the other half of the flour and milk.
You will have a very thick cake batter.
Next add the chopped strawberries and 2 tablespoons of the strawberry juice and
mix briefly on a low speed until just combined.
Spoon the batter into the patty
pans so that they are about 2/3 full and bake for approximately 15 minutes or
until the tops are lightly browned.
Remove from the tin and cool on
wire racks.
Boysenberry
Buttercream:
I always use boysenberry with
these cupcakes but you can change the flavour to whatever you like!
2 cups pure icing sugar
125g unsalted butter – softened
1 tsp boysenberry flavouring
¼ tsp purple food colouring gel
2 tbs milk
Garnishes:
Silver cachous
Shapes cut out of roll out icing and dried
a pinch of sparkles (edible ones of course)
Place softened butter in mixer
and beat on high while gradually adding sifted icing sugar.
Scrape down the bowl.
Continue to beat on high and add
the boysenberry flavouring and purple food colouring.
Add milk and beat on high for
about 5 minutes.
The milk gives the buttercream a smoother and shinier appearance.
Prepare a piping bag, fitted with
a star nozzle and fill with butter cream.
Pipe a flat rosette on top of each cupcake.
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Garnish with silver cachous and stars cut out from roll-out
icing.
Make the cakes extra special by adding just a 'pinch' of sparkle!
Thanks for reading!
