Nadiya Hussain’s Strawberry and Clotted Cream Shortcake Cupcakes
Nadiya Hussain's delightful strawberry shortcake cupcakes from her BBC2 series Nadiya Bakes feature a biscuit base, strawberry cupcake centre and clotted cream icing.
From the book
Nadiya Bakes
A collection of all new baking recipes accompanied by gorgeous photography
Packed with cakes, pies, and puddings to warm the heart and lift the spirits
Including mouthwatering savoury bakes as well as irresistible sweets
Introduction
These are an American–British hybrid. I just can’t settle on one flavour combo once I’ve thought of a way to combine several. Strawberries and cream is a classic, but I love clotted cream, so I couldn’t resist using it to make the cake batter here: no butter, just cream! I also love strawberry shortcake, so under each cake is a biscuit base, then a hidden strawberry inside, and I’ve topped it all off with strawberry ice-cream frosting! Why have just one thing when you can have it all?
Catch all of your favourite recipes from Nadiya's new series, Nadiya Bakes, here.
Ingredients
| For strawberry ice-cream frosting: | |
| 175g | slightly salted butter, softened |
| 350g | icing sugar |
| 100g | strawberry ice cream, softened |
| For the cake: | |
| 12 | round vanilla sandwich cookies |
| 12 | small to medium strawberries |
| 110g | clotted cream |
| 110g | caster sugar |
| 2 | medium eggs |
| 1 tsp | vanilla bean paste |
| 110g | self-raising flour, sifted |
| 9g | tube of freeze-dried strawberries to decorate |
Essential kit
You will need: an electric hand whisk, a piping bag fitted with a 1cm star nozzle, a 12-hole large muffin tray and the cupcake cases of your choice.
Method
Prep time: 30 minutes, plus chilling. Cook time: 15 minutes
Begin by making the icing, as this needs chilling. Whisk the butter with an electric hand whisk until pale and creamy. Sift in the icing sugar. Stir with a spoon to roughly combine and then beat with the electric whisk until light and fluffy. Add the ice cream and whisk until just combined. Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
Whisk the chilled icing until fluffy then transfer to a piping bag fitted with a 1cm star nozzle and put it back in the fridge while you get on with the baking.
Preheat the oven to180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line a 12-hole large muffin tray with some cupcake cases of your choice. To the base of each one, add a cookie, then top that with a whole strawberry, pointy bit facing up.
Now make the cake batter by adding the clotted cream and sugar to a mixing bowl and beating them together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each one.
Add the vanilla bean paste and flour and mix until you have a smooth batter.
Divide the mixture up between the 12 cases, making sure that each delicious strawberry is fully encased, until you have no batter left.
Tap the tray on the work surface to level off the batter and bake for 15 minutes, until they are fluffy and golden.
Take out and leave in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
Pipe the frosting onto the tops of the cupcakes and then sprinkle with the freeze-dried strawberries.
Best kept in the fridge for up to 2 days.
