Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

A weekend home of recuperation before the dreaded exams is just what I needed, so here I am, curled up on my sofa at home in my dressing gown, spaniel at my side, looking forward to a weekend of sleeping and baking; I really am an extreme student.

Oxford is currently in the middle of exam chaos. There are despairing freshers and jovial finalists everywhere! I can't walk down Turl Street without bumping into someone looking either thoroughly panic stricken in sub-fusc (formal exam clothing), or trashed from head to toe.  By "trashed" I mean covered in silly string, confetti and more than likely, cheap bubbly. This is what your friends do to you [in the nicest way possible] when you finish your exams for the year. Another bizarre but wonderful Oxford tradition. 

Personally, I can't wait to be showering off all that trashing muck in the knowledge that my exams are over and summer is here. That first glass of Pimms on grove quad next Friday is going to taste like FREEDOM. 

But for now, the only way possible to escape from the stress of modernist literature and Old English wisdom poetry, is to bake. So bake I will. 

Here's one of the yummy things the Lincoln lot are going to be treated to on my return this week, courtesy of the Hummingbird Bakery Book: strawberry cheesecake cupcakes.

Ingredients: 

For the cupcakes:

120g plain flour

140g caster sugar

1 and a half tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

40g unsalted butter

120ml whole milk 

half a tsp vanilla extract

1 egg 

12 large stawberries, chopped into small pieces 

100g digestive biscuits (the recipe says 200g, but this I found was WAY too much)

For the icing: 

300g icing sugar

50g unsalted butter

125g cream cheese

Method:

Line a muffin tin with pretty paper cupcake cases. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius.

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a bowl and beat together with a handheld electric mixer until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined.

Pour in the milk and vanilla extract and beat on medium speed until all the ingredients are well mixed. Add the egg and beat well for a few minutes.

Half fill each cupcake case with the batter. Then add a few pieces of strawberries, before topping up the cupcake case with more batter on top. (I then added a few pieces of strawberry on top too, for extra fruity goodness... these are practically healthy.)

Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until light and golden. The sponge should bounce back when lightly touched. Leave the cupcakes to cool before turning onto a wire rack. 

To make the icing: beat together the butter and cream cheese. Beat in the icing sugar. Chill in the fridge until cool enough to pipe. 

Break up the digestive biscuits and put them in a food processor. Whizz them up int fine crumbs. When the cupcakes are cool, pipe the icing onto them (or spread, if you prefer). Sprinkle with digestive biscuit crumbs and top with a strawberry quarter! 

Indulge without guilt. (especially if you have exams and are extremely stressed!)

Apologies for the lack of photos on this post folks, being the wally I am I forgot to charge my phone so didn't have it to take photos with until half way through the baking process! These Mini Strawberry Daiquiri Cupcakes are a slightly more grown up treat, and you could also try some summery Strawberry Jam Cupcakes.

The demands of having a "husband"

At Oxford, we have the rather bizarre tradition of college "marriages."

During my second week of term, I was proposed to. By proposed, I mean one of my male friends (Mark) quoted Shakespeare to me from Main Quad as I sat in my bedroom window roaring with laughter.

To give credit to him though, he had made an oragami ring, so obviously I said yes - BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER.

He's an exceedingly demanding college husband, and every time I venture home from university to satisfy a baking craving he insists that I bake him entire cakes to himself.

Hence, this classic Victoria Sponge..

I followed the normal recipe, using 3 eggs, 6oz of butter, flour, and sugar. Whizzed it all up together and into the oven! Oh, and I also added 60g of natural yoghurt, a technique I learned from Peyton and Byrne which REALLY moistens up a cake.

It is decorated with vanilla buttercream, strawberry jam and halved strawberries, as he is an absolute strawberry fiend. Here is Mark, modelling his cake in the 0.4 of a millisecond before he devoured it:

I love making simple Victoria Sandwiches like this, as they look so impressive and always taste delicious, yet are so quick to whip up! Perfect when you have an overly demanding husband!

Next up, strawberry tart.. (apparently.)

Strawberry Jam Cupcakes

(I do bake with ingredients other than strawberries, promise!)

I made these for a friend's party; her diabetic grandmother ate one, declared they were delicious and gobbled down two more before announcing that "Life was too short not to eat the good things."

I have to say, I completely agree.

This recipe was courtesy of the wonderful Peyton and Byrne, one of my favourite baking books of all time.

I have yet to visit one of their bakeries, but it is a day I anxiously await.

*Note - When I made these cupcakes, I didn't find the icing recipe supplied by P&B to be hugely successful or of a thick enough consistency to pipe, so I made up a butter icing and stirred some strawberry jam into it and dyed it slightly pink*

Here's the recipe to make these gorgeous summery goodies:

100g unsalted butter, softened
125g caster sugar
150g self raising flour
1tsp vanilla extract
2tbsp natural yoghurt
50g strawberry jam
Fresh strawberries to decorate
2 large egg whites (for the icing)
150g caster sugar (for the icing)
175g unsalted butter (for the icing)
2tbsp strawberry jam (for the icing)
4 large mashed strawberries (for the icing)
1 tsp vanilla extract (for the icing)

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celcius and line a 12 hole muffin tin with baking cases.

In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Sift the flour into the creamed mixture and mix until all the flour is well incorporated. Add the vanilla extract, yogurt and strawberry jam and mix until just incorporated.

Using a large spoon, fill the cupcakes cases about three-quarters full with the mixture. Bake the cakes for 15 minutes or until they are springy to the touch. Remove from the oven and let them call for 5 minutes in the tin before moving onto a cooling rack.

Make the strawberry jam icing: combine the egg whites and caster sugar in a large heatproof bowl suspended over a pan of JUST simmering water and whisk continuously by hand until the sugar is dissolved (this should take about 10 minutes.) When the sugar has dissolved and the syrup is warm to the touch, remove the bowl from the pan. Whisk for about 10 minutes until fluffy peaks form and the mixture has cooled. It needs to be completely cool before you add the butter.

Start adding small lumps of the softened butter, whisking a little at a time after each addition. Now gradually add the jam and mashed strawberries until all is incorporated and the mixture is smooth. Chill until ready to use. Ice your cupcakes!