Light, fruity and perfectly moist. These easy strawberries and cream cupcakes are the perfect summer treat, and so quick to put together!
Strawberries and cream is the quintessentially British summer dessert. Especially enjoyed while watching the tennis! But to be honest, I could eat it all year round. Strawberries are such a naturally delicious sweet fruit and paired with fresh whipped cream makes for a dream combo. These cupcakes are superrr easy to make, but look so beautiful!
Key Ingredients You’ll Need
- Fresh strawberries – This is just for decoration, which of course you’ll eat in the end. But as they are the finishing touch to your cupcakes, try and find the plumpest you can! You could of course use these to make your own jam too, but to keep these easy I’m using shop-bought in the recipe.
- Vanilla Extract – As the actual cupcake flavour is vanilla, perfectly complementing the strawberry jam and whipped cream. The quality of vanilla you use is important. Try if you can to use a vanilla extract rather than essence. Vanilla essence is generally more processed and doesn’t have a pure vanilla taste. You can make your own extract really easily – check out my method here! Buttt, it does take at least 6 weeks to age, so unfortunately it won’t help straight away!
- Double Cream (Heavy Cream) – There are many different types of cream, but for the best whipped cream you need double cream, or heavy cream as it is the USA. Double cream has a higher fat percentage which means it whips easily and holds its shape well.
How to make easy strawberries and cream cupcakes:
These cupcakes come together so easily, and can be made completely by hand. Though if you do have an electric hand-whisk, it’ll definitely help when it comes to whipping the cream!
Making the cupcakes
These vanilla cupcakes can be made in one bowl – you can use a stand mixer, electric hand-whisk or just a silicone spatula/wooden spoon. It really doesn’t matter, just whatever you find easiest is best. I personally use an electric hand-whisk, just as it makes it a tiny bit quicker!
One thing I would really advise on though, is to use a large cupcake (or muffin) tin along with the cupcake cases. The cupcake tin helps to support the cupcakes while they bake, giving you a perfectly even cupcake shape. If you just place the cases on a flat baking tray, they will end up a little lopsided. Of course they’ll still be delicious, but it will make coring and decorating them slightly trickier.
So onto the making! To help the cupcakes have the lightest texture, first you need to beat the butter on its own until really light and fluffy. This helps to incorporate air, giving you a lighter batter. Then the sugar can be beat in, before adding the eggs one at a time and the vanilla. Your batter will be very wet at this stage.
The dry ingredients should then be mixed in until just combined – don’t overmix here as you’ll create a tougher texture. Finally, the milk should be added. The batter will now be thick and smooth, and can be divided between the cupcake cases. This batter makes enough for 8 large cupcakes.
Cupcakes like these only take about 20 minutes to bake, and you’ll know they’re done if they’re golden brown and spring back to the touch.
Filling the cupcakes
These cupcakes have a hidden strawberry jam filling. I LOVE adding a filling to cupcakes. It adds some delicious moisture to the cupcakes, and gives a contrasting flavour against any buttercream you’re using.
To core the cupcakes, the easiest way is to use an apple corer. But if you don’t have one of those, using a small knife cut a cone shape out of the top. It sounds trickier than it is, once you’ve cored one it’ll make much more sense!
Then fill the holes to the brim with jam – which means you can eat the little cupcake cores! Chefs perks 😉
Decorating the cupcakes
The topping for these cupcakes is simply freshly whipped cream. So I would wait to to decorate the cupcakes until you are ready to serve. You can use a hand whisk to whip the cream, but it will be tough on your arm!! So if you have an electric hand-whisk you’re in luck!
Once the cream has just reached stiff peaks (i.e. the cream is holding itself into a peaked position), place it into a piping bag fitted with a piping tip (I used the Wilton 2D tip to create the soft spirals) and pipe over each cupcake. To get the best height, I start piping from the outside in, overlapping slightly so the cream spirals are on top of each other.
The final step is to slice strawberries in half, add to each cupcake and devour!
Tips & Tricks
Yes, if they can be kept in the fridge until serving in an air-tight container. If you can’t keep them in the fridge, don’t whip the cream and decorate the cupcakes until you’re ready to serve.
Kept in an air-tight container in the fridge, these cupcakes will keep well for 4-5 days. The jam centre keeps them nice and moist. When ready to serve, bring the cupcakes to room temperature first.
Absolutely! These would be great with raspberries, blackberries…even cherries!
These easy strawberries and cream cupcakes are full of flavour, so moist and perfectly light. I love how fresh the whipped cream topping is, rather than a sugary buttercream. The perfect summer dessert, picnic treat or lets face it – year round snack!
You may also like:
Easy Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes
Ingredients
Sponge
- 170 g unsalted butter room temperature
- 170 g caster sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs
- 170 g plain flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp milk whole or semi-skimmed
Filling
- 70 g strawberry jam
Topping
- 375 g double cream chilled
- 4 strawberries
Instructions
- For the sponge: Firstly preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas Mark 4, and line one or two large cupcake/muffin tin(s) with 8 cupcake/muffin cases. Then set aside.
- Place the butter into a large bowl and beat with an electric hand-whisk until light and fluffy. Then beat in the sugar until well combined and fluffy. Then add the vanilla, and the eggs one at a time – beating well between each addition.
- In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Then beat into the wet batter in three additions, mixing until just combined each time. Finally, beat in the milk until just combined and divide the batter between the cupcake/muffin cases. Bake for 23 minutes, until the cupcakes are a golden brown and springy to the touch. Place the cupcakes onto a cooling rack and leave to cool completely.
- For the filling: In a small bowl, mix the jam to loosen a little. Then using either an apple corer or small paring knife, core the cupcakes and fill each with the jam to the brim.
- For the topping: Pour the cold cream into a large bowl and using an electric hand-whisk, whisk on a high speed until stiff peaks. Then spoon into a piping bag fitted with a star tip (I used Wilton 2D). Pipe swirls over each cupcake. Finally, slice the strawberries in half and place one into the top of each cupcake.
