Anyone that know's me surely know's that I cannot cook. So I am sure that you are wondering why I am bringing you a blog about recipe's. After all, how can someone that claims to be unable to cook have recipes? Allow me to explain, whilst I am no cullinary wizard, I do love food. And I love to share food and the wonderful creations that my servants come up with. (Luxury of being a noble). And so I had to share some of these delicious recipes with you all, perhaps you can try and make some of them yourself!
The first recipe I would like to share with you is certainly a tasty treat and quite easy to make. Chocolate and strawberry flavoured cupcakes!

Ingredients

150g butter, at room temperature
150g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
100g self raising flour
50g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1tsp vanilla extract
15g freeze-dried strawberries, crushed
For the strawberry buttercream icing:
50g butter
200g icing sugar
5g finely ground freeze-dried strawberries
Pink food colouring
12x strawberries


 

Method

To make this cupcake recipe, preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/ Gas Mark 4.Place 12 paper cupcake cases in a cupcake tray.
Mix the butter and sugar in a bowl with a wooden spoon or electric mixer until light and creamy. Gradually beat in the eggs a little at a time, beating well until smooth and soft. If the mixture curdles, beat in a tablespoonful of the flour.
Stir in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and vanilla extract until smooth. Add the crushed dried strawberries and lightly stir through.
Place a heaped dessertspoon full of mixture in each cupcake case and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and just firm to the touch. Cool on a wire rack.
To make the butter cream, place the butter in a bowl with 1-2 tsp boiling water, add the icing sugar and strawberries and beat until smooth. Add the food colouring, a little at a time, and mix to the desired shade of pink. Place the icing in a piping bag with a small star nozzle and pipe on top of the cakes. Alternatively, spread the icing over the cakes and swirl with a round-bladed knife. Decorate with heart-shaped sprinkles.
 

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog!

 

Hayami Nitta