Strawberry-filled Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting

Preheat the oven to 170ºC (340ºF) and line a 12-count cupcake tray with paper liners. Set aside.

Sift the flour, sugar and baking powder into a bowl. Then add the butter. Mix together until it looks like sand.

Place the milk and egg in another bowl and whisk together with a fork. Pour the milk and egg mixture into the flour mixture and then mix until well incorporated and the mixture has a nice smooth consistency.

Place batter into the cupcake cases. I have to admit I only managed to get 11, but think I overfilled the cases. Recipe will make 12 if you fill the cases halfway full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until sponge is firm to touch and skewer/knife comes out clean. Then remove pan from the oven and leave to cool.

Whilst the cupcakes are cooling you can make the strawberry filling as this needs to cool and set as well.

Hull, then slice up the strawberries and place them into a saucepan. Add the water and then heat gently. Once heated, add the sugar and mix. For these strawberries, 3 tablespoons of sugar was plenty, but you should add the sugar to taste.

Bring to the boil and then turn the heat down to the lowest setting and mash the strawberries. You can either use a hand masher if you want a filling with chunks, or use a hand blender, which I used because I wanted my filling to be more of a purée.

Cut the gelatin sheets roughly and put them into the mixture, stir until they’ve melted into your mixture. When you get to this stage, turn the heat off and pour the mixture into a glass dish. Leave to cool for a bit and then place it in the fridge to finish cooling and set.

When the mixture has cooled completely and set, take it out of the fridge and place to one side. Now to use the cupcake plunger! There’s a bit of a knack to it, but it didn’t take long to master! You have to push it straight down into the top of the cupcake quite firmly without wiggling it (otherwise the piece will be too large and the plunger won’t pick it up). You only wiggle it when you bring it out. If you don’t have a cupcake plunger, use a sharp knife, or small round cookie cutter to take the top middle core out of each cupcake.

After you’ve taken the middle out of the cupcakes (keep the bits you’ve taken out) you can then put your strawberry filling in. Don’t fill them entirely to the top. Then cut the piece of cake you’ve removed down to make a topper to go back on the cake to cover the filling.

Now to make the frosting. Place all the frosting ingredients in a bowl and then whisk until the mixture is smooth and quite stiff. I piped the frosting onto my cupcakes, so it needs to be a thick enough consistency not to fall out of the nozzle without you squeezing it!

Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes (or spoon and spread it on). Cut the remaining extra strawberries in half to garnish.