Fresh Strawberry Balsamic Cupcakes with Strawberry and Raspberry Vodka Frosting

Unfortunately it seems that Summer has already ended in little old Loughborough. Sunny afternoons sat in the beer garden with friends has now turned to staring out of the window at grey drizzly skies and wishing for sunburn and Pimms. It does not seem to have affected the deliciousness of British strawberries however, and this Saturday I tottered into town and bought up as many boxes as I could carry home (along with some luscious looking blueberries...) restraining myself from elbowing over excited teenagers in the face if they bumped into me and bruised my lovely berries. Word to the wise - do not squish a tattooed cook's fruit, she may poke you with her pairing knife.

The previous weekend we had dined on these lovely strawberries drizzled with balsamic and strewn over homemade (pink) meringues and vanilla whipped cream. Absolutely heavenly and one of the most perfect desserts ever. Every time I make meringues I just can't seem to stop myself tinting them pink, much to Pete's amusement - I am very used to that 'you are SUCH a girl' look.

As I spoke about these cupcakes at work today I got a few funny looks when people heard strawberries and vinegar in the same sentence, but believe me this is a magical combo. The Italians have been doing it for ages and we all know they don't tend to get food wrong. I don't know what it is but something in the balsamic seems to suck out the juicy sweetness of the berries, amplifying it much louder than if you ate them with sugar or indeed nothing at all. Try it for yourself it is just so versatile - over ice cream, with angel food cake, alongside white chocolate mousse or as the topping for the most divine pavlova you could dream of.

Fresh Strawberry Balsamic Cupcakes with Strawberry and Raspberry Vodka Frosting
Makes 12 standard American size cupcakes

Strawberry Balsamic Cupcakes Ingredients
150ml fresh pureed strawberries
1.5 tsp good quality balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp caster sugar
60ml milk, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
110g butter, softened
400g caster sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 large egg whites, at room temperature

Strawberry and Raspberry Vodka Frosting
115g butter, softened
75ml fresh pureed strawberries
2 tbsp raspberry vodka (I used Absolut Raspberry)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
800g icing sugar

Cupcakes Method
Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F and line a tin with a dozen standard American cupcake liners or muffin liners.

Mix the pureed strawberries, balsamic vinegar and 1 tablespoon of sugar together and set aside for five minutes to develop before adding the milk and vanilla extract. In another bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. Cream the butter for 2-3 minutes and then gradually add the sugar. When well combined and fluffy add the egg and egg whites and mix until just combined. Now add half of the flour mixture and blend, then add the strawberry milk mixture and beat before finally adding the second half of the flour. Mix until just combined.

Divide the batter between the cupcake liners and bake for 22-25 minutes until the tops are slightly golden and spring back to the touch. Leave to cool for ten minutes in the tray, then place them a rack to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting Method
Cream the butter with the strawberry puree, raspberry vodka and vanilla extract and then add the icing bit by bit until you reach a spreadable consistency - you may not need all 800g.

To Finish
Spread onto the cooled cupcakes with an angled spatula, tilting it to do a little swirl in the middle to finish, then sprinkle with a little pearlised sugar or the decoration of your choice. Or leave them plain, they're your cupcakes after all, and enjoy the fruity goodness.

As you can see I was too impatient to let the frosting set. Or to take the photographs before eating half of the above cupcake. Oops...

Mad Hatter Cupcakes and Free Downloadable Toppers

Firstly, I'd like to apologise for being absent for a few weeks. It's been a bit of a crazy one at work and at home and then we had to spend last weekend in Liverpool. Don't ask me about it, we had an awful time and I may explode with anger when ranting about it. The only good things to come of it were buying a sprinkle covered pretzel, visiting Tate Liverpool and the Picasso exhibit, M&S chocolate brownie dessert and finally, finding this postcard in Paperchase.

See that cake that the birds are sitting in? That's a Saint Honore cake from legendary french patisserie Laduree. That's a pricey cake right there. So who the hell would think to cut it open, drain out the rose creme patissiere and stick some fake birds in it? That's the kind of imagination I could only wish to have. Props to you crazy bird cake person, whoever you may be.

FYI the pretzel tasted pretty lame, but boy was it pretty. I'm a sucker for anything with sprinkles on, although to be honest I'm not big on the taste.

But anyway, back to the cupcakes. I had been pretty stuck on what recipe to do this week, I wanted it to be a goodie as I've missed a few weeks and when the lovely Tara called to order some cupcakes for a Mad Hatters Tea Party my mind got a whirring. Of course they'd have to be a little crazy, but not so crazy that they tasted gross. Visual kookiness was key and I think I hit that combination of looking pretty but tame from the outside and containing a lovely surprise inside.

I ended up trying Hummingbird Bakery's standard vanilla cake recipe which is a good standby, not as good as my go to vanilla but still tasty and pretty moist. The frosting was a combination of vanilla flavoured white and strawberry flavoured grey swirled together. And what was the surprise inside? Well here you go...

Mad Hatter's Rainbow Vanilla Cupcakes
Makes 12 standard American size cupcakes
Recipe adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook by Tarek Malouf

Ingredients
120g plain flour
140g caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
40g unsalted butter at room temperature
120ml milk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 tsp each of blue, red, green and yellow food colourings
extra plain flour for thickening the coloured batter if needed

Method
Preheat the oven to 170 C / 325 F.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter until it reaches a sandy consistency and everything is combined. Gradually pour in half the milk and mix until well incorporated.

Whisk the egg, vanilla extract and remaining milk in a seperate bowl and then add to the flour mixture. Beat until well combined, scraping down the bowl sides if needed and then mixing for a further few minutes until the mixture is thickened and smooth.

Divide the mixture equally between four bowls. One at a time tint the batters with the food colourings, the strength of colour varies depending on which make of food dye you use. Gel colourings are best as they are more concentrated and therefore need less adding to give a good bright hue.

Add one teaspoon of colouring at a time, you want a really vivid colour to the batters. If when the correct colour is achieved the mixture is quite thin add more flour a tablespoon at a time until it is back to the consistency it was before adding the dye.

Split each colour of batter between twelve standard American cupcake cases so that there is a little of each of the four colours in each one - you should end up with something like the image below.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until the tops are slightly browned and the cake springs right back when touched. Leave to cool thoroughly before frosting.

Vanilla and Strawberry Monotone Frosting
Makes enough to generously frost 12 cupcakes with a little leftover

Ingredients
500g sifted icing sugar
160g unsalted butter at room temperature
50ml milk
1/2tsp vanilla extract
1-2 drops concentrated strawberry flavouring oil
1-2 tsp black food colouring

Large 14" piping bag
Extra large closed star tip
Card suit sugar sprinkles
Gold edible glitter
12 Eat Me cupcake toppers - link below

Method
Beat the butter and half the icing sugar until well combined, then add the milk and remaining sugar. Mix until smooth and thoroughly combined and then divide between two bowls. Add the vanilla to one and mix thoroughly. Next add the black food colouring to the second bowl along with the concentrated strawberry flavouring oil and beat until smooth and there are no streaks in the colour.

Put both the colours of frosting into the piping bag trying to keep one colour to each side of the bag in order to give a good stripe. Squeeze the icing out of the bag until you start to see the stripe in the icing and then frost the cupcakes squeezing the bag gently and using a circular motion so as to cover the cakes completely.

Sprinkle or place on the card suit sprinkles as quickly as possible so they stick before the frosting starts to set and then add a little shake of gold edible glitter to each. Stick an Eat Me cake topped into the centre of each frosting swirl and arrange on a lovely platter ready for a wonderfully mad tea party.

Notes
I use a brand of gel food colours called Americolor which I order from an amazing US website called Bake It Pretty - click here for a link to the product on their website. You should browse www.bakeitpretty.com anyway, it's such a gorgeous site!

You can also buy the concentrated flavouring oils from there site - click here for a link. You can use them to flavour just about anything - cakes, frostings, chocolate, fudge, candy, drinks, cookies and much much more.

Eat Me Cupcake Toppers - Ok guys, click here or on the image below for a link to the downloadable cupcake topper templates.

I cut mine out using a 2" scalloped circle paper punch which you can get from several online craft shops and stuck them together with a cocktail stick between using double sided tape.

I bought my card suit sprinkles from eBay along with the gold edible glitter and my black cupcake cases.

If any of you give them a try do send me photos of your results!!!