I made these today for a picnic on the Thames and they were highly praised and all eaten! The jam in the middle gives them an extra twist, much like a doughnut!

Strawberries and cream cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 225g Caster sugar
• 210g Self-raising flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 25g Cornflour
• 125g fresh ripe strawberries, hulled and crushed
• 225g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 4 large eggs, free range or organic

To decorate:

• Good-quality strawberry jam (1 teaspoon for each cupcake)
• 1 batch of Vanilla Buttercream icing
• 12 small strawberries

How to make strawberry & cream cupcakes:

• Preheat oven to 160’ celcius (fan) and lin 12 hole cupcake / muffin tray with appropriate size cases
• Put sugar, flour, baking powder, cornflour and crushed strawberries into a food processor. Pulse until evenly mixed. Add the butter and eggs and process briefly until even (roughly 10 seconds).
• Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, filling to about two-thirds full. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes. The cakes will be fairly moist even when cooked.
• Remove from the oven and leacve the cakes in their tins for about 10 minutes before placing on wire rack to cool.
• When completely cool, carefully make a small hole in the centre of each cupcake and use a teaspoon to push the strawberry jam into the hole – you can slightly warm the jam in a saucepan first to soften it before pushing it in to the sponge.
• Wash the 12 strawberries and dry off on kitchen paper. Decorate the cupcakes with the vanilla buttercream icing and, just before serving, place a fresh strawberry in the centre.