Strawberry Shortbread Cupcakes

By: Pete on 10:23:00

In a wedding cake double-header, I bashed out the final 2 receipes last night. Provisionally, that's all the recipes sorted. This was the one I was least worried about, as I've done most of it before. It's the simplest sponge, and the decoration is also simple (if effective). The icing is new, however I've done varieties of it before.

For the final run, the biscuits will be prepared ahead of time (a day or two, and stored in an airtight container), and then I'll probably do the decoration on the day, to keep the biscuits as crisp as possible.

Strawberry Shortbread Cupcakes - Recipe

Shortbread Ingredients

• 100g plain flour
• 66g fridge-cold butter
• 33g caster sugar
• Pinch of salt
• White chocolate

1) Place the flour, sugar and salt into a medium-sized bowl

2) Rub the butter into the dry ingredients, until you have a mixture resombling breadcrumbs. You can also do this in a food processor with a blade attachment.

3) Press the mixture into a dough (work it as little as possible), and roll to 5mm thickness on a lightly floured surface.

4) Using a circular cutter approximately 8-10cm in diameter, cut out 2 circles

5) Chop these into 8 pizza wedges each, and prick with a fork

(you can re-roll and cut the rest as "cooks snacks"!)

6) Place on a baking tray, and place in the fridge for 20 mintues.

7) Preheat the oven to 150-160'C

8) bake for 10-15 minutes, until golden

9) Remove to a wire rack to cool

10) Melt the white chocolate in a  small bowl in the microwave (I do it in 10 second bursts, stirring after each burst)

11) Dip the point of each biscuit in the chocolate, then place on greaseproof paper, and allow to set completely

Note - the biscuits are chocolate-dipped to keep them from any moisture from the cake, so they stay crisp.

Sponge Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
• 175g self-raising flour
• 175g caster sugar
• 175g room-temperature butter
• 1tsp vanilla extract

1) Pre-heat oven to 150'C

2) Place all the ingredients in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment

3) Mix until mixture is just smooth (I often do everything but the flour first, then add the flour once the other ingredients are mixed. As a rule of thumb you want to work flour as little as possible, unless you're making bread!)

4) Place 45g of mixture into 12 muffin cases in a 12-hole muffin tin (you will have some left-over mixture...you may want to trial with adding a little more, however I find 45g of mixture is about right for filling the cases I use)

5) Bake in the oven for 20 minutes

6) Remove to a wire rack to cool

White Chocolate Frosting Ingredients

• 150g room-temperature butter
• 150g icing sugar
• 150g white chocolate

1) Place the white chocolate in a small bowl

2) Melt the chocolate in a microwave (again, 10 second bursts and stir)

3) Leave to cool slightly (but remain liquid...you don't want it melting butter)

4) Put the butter and sugar in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment

5) Beat the sugar and butter thoroughly until very light and smooth

6) using a spatula, fold in the cooled white chocolate

7) Trasfer to a piping bag with a semi-closed star nozzle

Assembly

• Strawberry Jam (homemade or shop bought)
• 6 medium-sized strawberries, chopped into quarters

1) Using a cupcake corer,  take about 2cm out of the middle of each cake

2) Place a teaspoon of jam into each cake. replace the plug of sponge

3) Pipe a generous swirl of icing onto each cake

4) Decorate with 2 pieces of strawberry, and a biscuit wedge poking out