Strawberry Daiquiri Cupcake

Cupcakes or fairy buns as they were known as then, were one of my very earliest epicurean exploits, next to Rice Krispie buns, in my parents' kitchen. We had an electric fan oven and my home economics teacher told us that sponge baked lighter in a gas oven. So for many years I pursued the springiest, sponge-iest, moistest fairy bun recipe but it alluded me.

At some point in the last ten years the cupcake trend took off and I thought right this is my big chance. 

Icing methods and general decoration reigned supreme though and every cupcake I tasted was tough and processed tasting. Until I discovered the Hummingbird Bakery in London on a TV show on RTE1.

 But I needed to make it to London. I lived in Dublin and had flown through Heathrow lots of times but I had never gotten into the city. It was September 2011, and four fantastic days were spent walking the gold paved footpaths of London. My boyfriend bought me my very first Hummingbird cupcake in Notting Hill, it was a vanilla one and as soon as my teeth sank into the sponge I knew I had struck platinum.

 I needed the recipe. I got their cookbook and have never ever ever deviated since. They win rave reviews and I have learned that while presentation is important, so is the cupcake's effect on the palate. Here is the recipe to the Hummingbird strawberry daiquiri cupcake adjusted a little and just so you know doesn't taste remotely of alcohol. Genius.

There are three stages so stick with it, read on, it's worth the work. The stages include the sponge, the strawberries for the sponge and the icing. 

You'll need......

Sponge

100 ml clear alcohol (rum, gin, vodka,I even used Poitin)
170g caster sugar
150g strawberries
40g unsalted butter, softened
120g plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 large egg
120ml milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Frosting

80g unsalted, softened butter
250g icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lime zest
4 teaspoon milk
Sliced strawberries to garnish

Cupcake cases
Cupcake tin

Now....

You'll need to....

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius and fill tin with cases.

In a small saucepan, dissolve 30g of sugar in the alcohol by bringing it all to a boil. Leave to cool a bit before adding the chopped and hulled strawberries to bathe in the syrup for at least half an hour.

Now to the mixer....... mix together the flour, butter, remaining sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix until it looks like breadcrumbs.

In a jug whisk up the milk, egg and vanilla essence.

At a slow speed beat 3/4s of this wet mixture into the dry mix, scrape down the sides and incorporate the rest of the egg mix.

Drain the strawberries and leave the syrup to one side. 

Place a few strawberries in the bottom of each cupcake case and then spoon the batter on top until it fills up to 2/3s of the case. 

Bake for 15 mins until golden brown.

Remove from oven and spoon over the alcohol reduction while still warm. Leave to cool completely.



The frosting.....

You'll need to......

On a low speed beat together the butter, icing sugar and lime zest until it looks like breadcrumbs.

Then get four teaspoons of the alcohol syrup and mix with milk. 

Pour this into the the icing sugar mix slowly and at a low speed. Once incorporated, ramp up the speed until it's all fluffy.

Smooth on to the cupcakes and decorate with slices of fresh strawberries and await the reaction.......