Strawberry Jam Cupcakes

I went to a family christening recently, for beautiful little girl Ava. I wanted to make some girly cupcakes to take along for the party so a combination of strawberries and pink seemed like the way to go.

I used Willow Bird Baking's Strawberry Jam Cupcakes recipe (<-- link here) almost exactly, just increasing the chopped fresh strawberries to a generous cupful. I liked the combination of fresh fruit in the batter and the jam as a filling, plumping up the flavour and the moisture.

Although I did use cream cheese icing, I opted for the version I've used previously (a half batch adapted from Bakerella) because I know how much it makes. I added a little red food colouring and about a tablespoon of Pavlova Magic to improve firmness. I also sprinkled over some girly little butterfly decorations to finish them.

This is what happens when I use food colouring. But thankfully it did wash out before too long.

The cupcakes were well received. My husband said they tasted like pikelets, which I imagine is down to the strawberry jam and batter combination.

I have had problems neatly extracting mini cupcakes from my non-mini cupcake holder wells, and this is my new "hi-tech" solution. I just cut a small strip of tin foil, double it over to make it stronger and position it under the cake so you can lift it out without wrecking the icing :)