cupcake hero #2

The cupcake hero challenge for December is mint. A few years ago I made a cake to take on a picnic which was a coconut cake with mint syrup. It was really yummy and something along those lines was what came to mind when I started thinking about a mint inspired cupcake.

Next thought was what goes well with mint as I didn’t want to just replicate the coconut and mint syrup cake. Strawberries are one of my favourite things and they have a real affinity with mint, so I decided to pair the mint flavour with strawberries. The next thought that popped into my mind was cream. Even though I love making cupcakes I don’t always love eating them as I find the buttercream style of icing very sweet. I thought that topping my cakes with whipped cream would be a good alternative for these cakes, especially as strawberries and cream are another classic combination!



So, here is my cake, a basic vanilla cake (I made a vanilla variation of my favourite chocolate cupcake recipe) but with a mint syrup, topped with whipped cream with strawberries folded through and garnished with more strawberry and a little mint leaf. I guess I could call them mint syrup and strawberry cupcakes!



I took them to book club end of year drinks last night. They are really yummy – the mint gives them a freshness and the strawberries and cream are delicious!


MINT SYRUP AND STRAWBERRY CUPCAKES

100g butter, softened
180 g sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract or paste (I used vanilla paste which you can now get at supermarkets)
150g flour
2 tsp baking powder
100ml warm milk

· Cream butter and sugar; beat in eggs one at a time and then vanilla
· Stir in flour and b powder alternately with milk
· Spoon into 12 cupcake cases and bake at 180deg for about 18 minutes
· When cold, drizzle with following hot syrup (or when hot drizzle with the cooled syrup)

½ c sugar
½ c water
juice of one lemon
a couple of sprigs of mint leaves

· Stir ingredients over heat until the sugar dissolves, then simmer for about 3 minutes

Top the cupcakes with whipped cream that you have folded crushed strawberries through (I used 300ml cream beaten with 1 tbsp icing sugar and one punnet of strawberries which I pureed in my min prep) and top with a slice of strawberry and a mint leaf.