Strawberry Cupcakes

In recent years there are a few buzz words associated with all the lovely fruits & vegetables available, that are used to tell us why we should eat them. The key phrases are super food, rich in antioxidants, & packed full of vitamins and so on. I feel that all food is good for us, consumed in the correct quantities and eaten on a regular basis. There has been much research that has been conducted on strawberries and the results suggest that it is rich in vitamin C, is filled with antioxidants that help fight cancer and heart disease, rich in folic acid and are also good at helping reduce tartar as well as maintaining healthy skin. With or without the title of super food, strawberries are a great tasting food which gives us an uplifting effect and can satisfy any sweet tooth.

This recipe for Strawberry Cupcakes was requested from my dear son for some months now. He asked my younger sister to make a strawberry chocolate cake, so she attempted it earlier this year. She adapted her normal recipe for eggless chocolate cake and added strawberry jam and syrup. This experiment did not quite work as the cake sank! I then had a go with the yoghurt cake recipe and added strawberry syrup and cocoa. It smelt great but the taste was not there. Then at a recent food festival, I had tried some strawberry cake/bread which was vegan. They had used a lot of chopped fresh fruit to get taste and texture. Then I also saw a few recipes which inspired me, there was this Blueberry coffee cake & Eggless Vanilla Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins.

From all of that research and experimenting, I made the following recipe which was a good first attempt. The cup cakes were moist and had the correct balance of fruit and sugar. My husband said they were more like muffins than cupcakes, but all the same tasted great. I was glad that I took up the challenge and ventured into creating this recipe.

I guess this recipe can be used for any other fresh fruit cake you wish to make, like mango, blueberries etc. You can reduce the amount of sugar needed depending on how sweet the fruit is.

Ingredients

Preparation time : 45 mins        Cooking time: 15 to 20 mins          Makes: 12 big cupcakes or 24 small

2 cups self raising flour

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp each of baking powder & bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp of vanilla essence

2 tbsp of butter

3 tbsp natural yoghurt

1/4 cup of strawberry juice

1 cup of chopped strawberry

Method

1) Wash and chop the strawberries, keep aside. Pre- heat the oven to 180 ‘C and place the cases for the cupcakes in a tray.

2) Make the juice of the strawberries by whisking the chopped strawberries in to a pulpy juice to the quantity required. In a large bowl mix together the sugar & butter to create a breadcrumb like consistency. Now to this add the yoghurt, vanilla essence and strawberry juice.

3) To the wet mixture add all the dry ingredients, mix well and then fold in the chopped strawberries. If you are happy with the consistency (not too runny and not too thick) then fill the cases with the mixture coming up to about 3/4 full. Place in the pre-heated oven and bake until golden brown and when a tooth pick is inserted it comes out clean. You are ready to serve with some coffee or with fresh cream or even some ice cream.