These cupcakes are one of my favourite bakes during the summer. They don’t require an immense amount of skill or time, making them accessible to all bakers, novices and pro’s alike.

I feel the colour of these cupcakes lends itself very well to Valentine’s Day, a baby-girl shower or a girlie tea party. To make them more gender neutral, I would omit the red food colouring from the icing or replace will a tiny drop of yellow food colouring for a pastel hue.

The recipe below if for 12 regular cupcakes. If you wish to make them gluten free, simply substitute the flour for gluten free flour – I used a pre-mixed blend from the supermarket. As with my Vanilla Cupcakes, instead of a cupcake tray, I used a muffin tray in this recipe. The depth helps the cupcakes keep a good shape as they rise.

Hope you enjoy!

Amy x

Ingredients
8oz caster sugar
8oz margarine
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
12oz self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp strawberry jam
Splash of milk

For the buttercream:
250g icing sugar
80g soft butter
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Splash of milk
3 strawberries, halved
1/4 tsp red food colouring (optional)
Hundreds and thousands (optional)

Method
Line a 12-hole muffin tin with cupcake cases. Preheat the oven to 180C.

Cream the sugar and margarine until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one by one, adding a tbsp of flour with each egg to prevent curdling. Beat in the vanilla with the eggs.

Fold in the remaining flour, baking powder and salt along with a the milk and jam.

Divide between the cases and bake for 18-20 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the tray and allow to cool on a wire rack.

To make the buttercream icing, beat together the butter, icing sugar, milk and red food colouring, if using, until smooth. If the mixture is too thick add more milk.

To decorate, pipe or spread on the buttercream, top with half a strawberry and sprinkle with hundreds and thousands, if using.

Store iced cupcakes in the fridge for up to 24 hours or un-iced in the freezer for up to 3 months. Best served at room temperature.