Saturday, January 21, 2012

Strawberry marshmallow cupcakes

I just wrote a whole blog entry and lost it .... d'oh!

It's been a while…. again….! Since I last wrote I got outbid on a shop, kept house hunting, looked at shops to rent, made Christmas dinner (go me) and had my first day off sick in about a year (today!)

So, this recipe is my response to lots of disappointing strawberry recipes! Plus my attempt at making marshmallow icing. Distressingly I lost the actual recipe I used, but have found one that looks almost exactly the same (to my memory). I also have to give credit to my friend Hannah who was my photographer for the day - as particularly doing the icing gives little space for stopping and taking photos!

Ingredients:

6oz self raising flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder (NOT TABLESPOON!)
6oz sugar (granulated or caster is fine)
6oz marg, or softened butter
2 eggs (at room temp)
a splash of milk
(I usually weigh the eggs and add enough milk to bring it up to 6 oz)
4 oz strawberries

1. Put flour, baking powder marg, sugar, eggs, and milk into a bowl and whisk for 2 mins (if you using an electric whisk or mixer) until smooth



2. Chop strawberries finely and swirl into mix.



3. Spoon into cupcake cases and bake for 15-20 mins at 180C (170C for fan oven)



for the icing I shall offer two options, the first is definitely simpler, but still amazingly tasty
Ingredients:

4 oz strawberries, chopped finely
icing sugar. 

Mash the strawberries a bit with a fork and add enough icing sugar for it to be a nice, not too runny, icing.

Strawberry marshmallow icing….

Note- for this you either need two people or a stand mixer, you'll also need a sugar thermometer.

Ingredients:

2 egg whites
120g granulated sugar
80g golden syrup
1 1/2 tbsp water

Method:
1. Place sugar, golden syrup and water into a heavy-based pan and bring to boil



2. While this is boiling start to whisk egg whites in a stand mixer

 - You're aiming for the sugar syrup to reach 121C at the same time as the egg whites get to the stiffly whisked point.



3. Once the sugar syrup reaches 121C pour over the still-whisking egg whites and continue to whisk until the mixture cools and becomes shiny and white.



4. Add the mashed strawberries and whisk together



5. Spoon onto cupcakes and put under grill or blow torch. (Sadly no pictures of this stage)

Eat within a couple of days.

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