Summer is clinging on (or should that be 'making a comeback') here. Today is a little bit grey and cloudy (actually, it has just started raining as I type this!), but the rest of the week is expected to be an Indian Summer. It does not please me as I am ready for cold nights, snuggling with hot water bottles, tucking my feet in a toasty warm blanket when I read in the afternoons, a cup of tea placed by my side. It shouldn't last beyond this week, when we are told to expect a sudden and early start to another long winter. So thinking perhaps I should embrace the unexpected lingering summer, I decided to bake some strawberry cakes that I saw in a magazine last week. You can't get more summery than that!
I was also keen to write a new post, so that I didn't have to look at my hideous toadstool cakes from last week! Thank you for the kind comments by the way, and my little girl was so happy with them that it really didn't matter that they made in such a shoddy manner!
The recipe is from the Ella Valentine website, which if you haven't visited before, is a really lovely site to look around.
Click [HERE] for the strawberry cupcake recipe page. They cakes turned out well, but the next time I make them I will make a slight alteration. I would put in less diced strawberries. I put in the correct amount and found it left the sponge cake a little on the soggy side. Less would be better.
Soggy or not, they taste absolutely fantastic. This recipe is a keeper, one of the best ones I've tried.
Even the frosting is nice. Normally I can't eat butter icing. I'm not a fan of butter in it's solid state. I'll happily eat it melted on hot toast or corn on the cob, but give me bread and butter (or any buttery spread) and I just cannot eat it. So I struggle with buttery icing on cakes, and normally have to remove it. I like Betty Crocker ready made vanilla frosting because it doesn't have a buttery taste to me.
This is the first one that I've tried and could manage to eat some of. I still wouldn't want to eat much, but I can manage a mouthful.
I know a little girl who will be thrilled to see these when she gets home today!
This is the book I'm reading at the moment. Slightly ironic considering my love of baking and my quest to make tasty and sweet treats!
