Strawberry Shortcake… Cupcake… Surprise

      How can that be you say! Strawberry Shortcake, in a Cupcake with a Surprise whaaaaat!! say it with me one time Strawberry Shortcake… Cupcake… SURPRISE!!

      What could the surprise possibly be you ask? Well, thank you so much for asking… let me explain in a short story.

      This recipe is all about Strawberry week, thousands of beautiful ripe strawberries that need to be eaten or frozen right away.

      It started off with me saying to myself ( redundant I know lol ) Strawberry Shortcake… I have to put a classic on for Strawberry week. Fluffy Cake, sweet Strawberries and, mmm, mmm Whip Cream. What is there to improve upon?

      Let’s start with stuffing them, ok that seems like a simple fun way to add a surprise. Then I opened up my favourite cookbook in the whole wide world ” Culinary Artistry “.

      I turned the page to Strawberries and there it was, the first word under Strawberries… Almonds. There was no way I was doing a plain white cake now, Almond Cupcakes all the way.

      Then my eyes kept wandering down the page and right there in bold print was Mascarpone… Mascarpone Whip Cream ahhhhhhh the light started shining bright.

    I was so excited to try making these and eating one. Even more excited to make them and see the look on someone else’s face when they tried one. They’ll already be giddy thinking about biting into a Strawberry Shortcake Cupcake.

      All their childhood memories flooding back to birthday parties and Nana’s house for dinner.

      Then………  BAM!! the Mascarpone hits them and their eyes widen trying to figure out what that wonderful flavour is.

      Then….. BAM! BAM! ( a double Bam because they’re already in shock, ) that isn’t just a plain white Cake….. ohhhh my goodness these are soooo good!!

      Moments like that are one of the reasons I love to cook so much. It’s like giving the perfect gift at Christmas and seeing that incredible expression of joy on your kid’s face. Just think, you can get that expression all year round with delicious food, It’s so much fun, at least to me lol.

The Cake in CupCAKE

      It all starts with a simple Cupcake recipe, but with a tweak. We replace some of the Flour with ground Almonds. Simple enough but let’s go over it anyway.

      Make sure to let the Butter soften a little so that it will fluff up when whipped with the Sugar. Add the two ingredients together and whip with a mixer ( I love my Kitchen Aid Mixer for jobs like this ) for 3 – 4 minutes until light and fluffy.

      Next step is to add the Eggs to the Butter and Sugar. Keep the mixer on low and add one Egg at a time, then the Almond Extract. Mix until fully incorporated. In the meantime measure out the milk and put all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix.

       Turn the mixer to low, add one third of the dry ingredients into the mixer. Alternating with the Milk add the rest of the dry ingredients and Milk. You should end up with a batter that looks thicker than pancake batter.

Preparing Strawberry Shortcake, Cupcake, Surprise for the oven

      Turn the oven on to 350°F and line a muffin tin with baking cups. I found some really nice ones at Ikea but they are available all over. Spoon the batter into the baking cups, I love using my Ice Cream Scoops for this.

      I have an Ice Cream Scoop that is approx. a quarter cup, which is perfect for scooping Cupcake batter.

      Place in the middle of the oven and bake for 20 – 25 minutes, or until a skewer poked in the middle come out clean. I found mine were still very underdone at 20 minutes but were cooked nicely by 25 minutes.

The Sugar comes marching in

      I must warn you, the rest of this recipe is not for the faint of heart. And if you are on a Keto diet, welllll, please go check out some of the other great recipes I have for you because this isn’t one of them 😉 . Being able to consume Sugar is a must to eat Strawberry Shortcake, Cupcake, Surprise!

      Time to kick the strawberries up a notch, cut the Strawberries into tiny pieces and mix with Icing Sugar and Port Wine. If you don’t have Port, any dessert wine will do or even a Brandy or Rum.

      Set the Strawberries aside and move on to the Mascarpone Whip Cream. Start with the Cream in a mixing bowl and whip until you’ve reached soft peaks. Add the Icing Sugar and Vanilla and continue to whip until incorporated.

      In a separate bowl add the Mascarpone Cheese and using a whisk beat the Cheese to fluff it up a little. Spoon in one-third of the Whip Cream into the Mascarpone and mix until they are incorporated.

      The reason for doing this is to keep the Whip Cream as light as possible without losing volume. Continue to spoon in one-third of the Whip Cream at a time, fold the whisk over and over. Try to prevent stirring or whipping when mixing the Cream into the Cheese.

      When finished place into a piping bag, I use a ziplock most of the time, with a large rosette tip on the end.

      A trick is to place the piping bag tip side down into a cup, then scoop the Whip Cream in. This prevents having to hold the bag and scoop at the same time, which can be cumbersome.

      Into the fridge with the Whip Cream and onto building the Cupcakes.

Assembling our Strawberry Cupcakes

      The first thing to do is create our little surprise pocket, that’s where our macerated Strawberries are going to hide. This is easy to do with a melon baller but in a pinch, you can use a small spoon.

      Just like making Melon balls simply press the Melon baller into the centre top of the Cupcake and scoop out the middle. You want to remove a decent amount but make sure to not go all the way through to the bottom.

      Using a teaspoon, spoon the Strawberry mixture into each of the caves you just made. Don’t forget to add a little of the macerated juice too, these cakes are dense and will soak it right up.

      Now that you have filled the hidden cave with goodies it’s time to cover it up. A trick to using a piping bag, never fill it all the way, halfway to three-quarters max. Twist the top two to three times until the bag is under pressure.

      One hand goes on the top and squeezes the bag, the bottom hand does NOT squeeze, it is merely there to guide the tip. Squeezing with the top hand guide the tip around the outside of the Cupcake first and work your way to the middle. Once you hit the middle, stop squeezing and pull straight up to finish.

      When the top of the bag gets too loose or soft, twist the top a little tighter to create pressure and off you go again.

      All that is left is to garnish them up a little. The above picture shows three examples of how to use Strawberries. I call them the classic, the fan, and the bunny ears 😛 . The only thing that matters is to have fun with it and try to make them interesting to the eye.

      I followed that by sprinkling toasted sliced Almonds over the top, The Almonds compliment the fact that you have an Almond Cake. It is a hint of what they are about to bite into without telling them the whole story.

      A little afternoon Tea, some ripe seasonal Strawberries on a side platter, Strawberry Shortcake, Cupcake, Surprise. Now all that is left is company and…Enjoy!