Strawberries and cream

Wimbledon!

…has been and gone. Typically, I am somewhat behind the curve and writing about something which is old news. Although, given that this blog isn’t one dedicated to tennis or even sport, I hope you’ll forgive me and instead focus on the fact that I’m showing you something delicious which has something of a relevance in terms of current affairs. Strawberries and cream, that essential Wimbledon delicacy, in cupcake form.

My relationship with tennis hasn’t always been a particularly happy one. In fact, my enjoyment of the sport rose markedly once I stopped playing it. As a child I did the usual Saturday morning and after-school tennis classes, briefly enjoying the glittering accolade of ‘Most Improved’ player in my beginners’ class (I still have the shield). One year my birthday cake was the shape of a tennis racquet, coinciding with my receiving one as a gift (a black and gold Slazenger one, with a picture of Tim Henman on the packaging).  However, being the chubby, bookish child that I was, this soon slowed to a halt and the tennis racquet began to gather dust.

At secondary school I had to face the brutal reality of compulsory tennis lessons during the summer term, which saw me consistently in the bottom group, cursing the unsympathetic teachers as I struggled to sprint from the baseline to the net during warm-ups, and failed to even hit the ball during games with alarming regularity.

Needless to say, my opinion of the sport in general was somewhat tainted by my experiences. But the realisation that this was a sport which could be watched and enjoyed, rather than played (in the loosest sense of the word in my case) and endured began to dawn once I no longer had to undertake the weekly embarassment of Group C tennis. I wouldn’t identify myself as a tennis fan – I know who some of the big names are, how the scoring works, and can smile and nod along to a conversation on the subject – but Wimbledon converts me for two weeks a year. This, I suppose, is mostly down to the atmosphere and traditions of the event itself; the dedicated fans huddled resolutely on ‘Murray Mountain’ come [usually] rain or shine, the stipulation that players’ kit must be predominantly white, the defiant optimism that one day, one day, a Brit will win, and of course the strawberries and cream.

I made these cupcakes for a ‘bring and share’ dinner at a friends’ house on Saturday- the purpose of the occasion was to welcome back a friend who had been in Canada for the past 7 months, so what better way to say ‘You’re in Britain, yay Britain!’ than with this classic combination? That said, there isn’t actually any cream in the cakes, so I’m pleading artistic license here. I adapted the recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery’s peaches and cream cupcakes and the results were undoubtedly delicious, although the high water content of the strawberries meant that the cakes had rather soggy bottoms, so to speak, with some of the fruit sticking to the cases and generally creating a bit of a gooey mess. A potential remedy might be to put a small amount of batter into the bottom of the cupcakes before adding the fruit to restrain some of the errant juice. That, or just accept that you’re going to be peeling bits of strawberry off the paper cases and licking your fingers quite a lot.

Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes

Adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery recipe book

230g strawberries, washed, hulled and sliced
120g plain flour
140g caster sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
40g unsalted butter, softened
120ml whole milk
1 large egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

250g icing sugar
80g unsalted butter, softened
25ml whole milk
Dash of vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C, and line a cupcake/muffin tray with paper cases. If you’re using large cases, you’ll need 12.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar, then mix in the flour, baking powder and salt until you get something resembling sand. Add 60ml of the milk gradually, until everything is combined.

3. Whisk the egg, vanilla and the remaining milk together before pouring into the flour mixture and beat together until smooth- be careful not to overmix, as this will compromse how well the cakes rise.

4. Divide the chopped strawberries amongst the cases, before spooning in the batter until each case is around two-thirds full.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

6. Whilst the cakes are cooling, make the frosting by beating together the icing sugar and butter and adding the milk gradually (you may not need all of it). Beat the mixture for around 5 minutes, until it’s really creamy and fluffy.

7. Once the cakes are cool, spread them with the frosting. As an extra flourish, you could top with whole/sliced strawberry.

The dinner was lovely, with a large amount of food, drink and perhaps a little too much watching of cat videos on youtube. The cupcakes went down well and I went home with an empty cake tin- definitely the sign of a good night.

There was even a cakestand- I’m friends with a pretty classy group of people.