Jubilee Celebrations

This year we are privileged  to have another extra long Bank Holiday and that is to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee. I'm sure many of you are excited just as I am and many of you will be involved in organising wonderful street parties or house parties to celebrate such a beautiful occasion. For me it's another reason to bake another indulging treat. Whilst tweeting on twitter I came across a competition hosted by the lovely HomemadebyFleur, she is hosting a blogging jubilee baking competition and you can read all about it here  http://wp.me/p1UMex-o3. In addition appliances on line are the kind sponsors of this blogging competition www.appliancesonline.co.uk/cookers/cookers.aspx.
I totally agree with HomemadebyFleur that all cakes and bakes on the internet for Jubilee are red, white and blue and we need to see some variety. I wanted to keep to the jubilee theme but bake something with an added twist. With a variety of flavours developing in my head I decided to go with chocolate as the main ingredient, to be honest with the amount of chocolate we consume as a nation you can never go wrong. On the other hand strawberries have always gone hand in hand with chocolate not only has it been used in many British baking dishes, it is also a great girls night in treat to have chocolate, strawberries, wine and good company. The perfect combination of chocolate and strawberries and my love for coconut inspired me to bake these deliciously mouthwatering fruity strawberry and chocolate cupcakes with a hint of paradise.  I had so much fun baking and decorating these cupcakes and my 5 year old had the best time eating strawberry icing. It is so exciting to share this recipe for everyone else to make and enjoy.

Chocolate and coconut strawberry surprise.

Ingredients:
(To make approx 12 Cupcakes)

3 Large Eggs
170g Caster Sugar
170g Butter
140g Self Raising flour
28g dessicated coconut
28g cocoa powder
1/2 Tsp strawberry essence (I used Beau concentrated essence)
6 medium sized strawberries( washed, stalk removed and sliced in half)
3 Tbsp Milk


Strawberry Icing:

150g Butter
300g Icing Sugar
1 Tbsp pureed strawberry pulp
1/4 Tsp Strawberry Essence

Decoration:

Patriotic muffin cases ( I purchased mine from Sainsbury's)
Edible union jack flag ( I purchased mine from Hollycupcakes)
Red non pareils
Edible glitter
Sugar Paste
Flower cutters
Piping Bag and Nozzle ( I used Wilton 1c but you can use any other nozzles alternatively snip one end of food bag and use as piping bag)


Instructions on how to make:
Pre heat oven at 190 degrees Celsius  or 170 degrees for Fan Oven.

1. Beat sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.
2. Add eggs one at a time beating until fully incorporated and you get a smooth mixture. If your mixture is a bit lumpy add a bit of flour and beat till smooth. Add strawberry essence and milk.
3. Fold in flour and coconut until well incorporated.

4. Spoon mixture into muffin cases. Place halved strawberry into each muffin case as per picture.

5. Bake cupcakes in pre heated oven for 20 mins. Remove from tray and let them cool down on a wire rack.

Strawberry Icing:


1. Beat butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy, add strawberry essence and strawberry puree and mix well. You can add a bit of red food colour if you would like the icing to be colourful. I wanted to leave the icing as it was and you can't see it very clearly in the picture but the icing had a hint of red from strawberries.

Strawberry icing, slight hint of red from strawberries.

Once the cupcakes have cooled down, fill your piping bag with icing and pipe onto cupcake. I decorated my cupcakes with handmade sugar paste flowers using flower cutters and coloured sugar paste, edible union jack cake toppers, edible glitter and non pareils.

Piped butter cream swirls

Presentation of decorated cupcakes

Finished cupcake in half.

The smell of baked chocolate and strawberries will give your home a scent that will leave you wanting more.

I hope you enjoy baking these little beauties as much as I did and please leave me any feedback or comments on how you got on and what further information you may like on my next blog.

Happy Baking!