Simple Eton Mess Inspired Cupcakes

I have a confession. This post did not go as planned, like really not as planned. I was originally going to make two different types of cupcake and they were going to be amazing with loads of Eton Mess, crushed meringue, strawberries, the absolute works. But me being me, I managed to mess up the Eton Mess. Of all the things to mess up, I messed up the one thing that is just three or four different ingredients thrown together. Long story short I forgot that strawberries are essentially water and if you stir too much, the cream you spent ages whipping into stiff peaks will start to go runny and no amount of stirring, icing sugar or meringue will help, in fact it just makes it worse. What I ended up with was a pink, runny, tubby custard looking mess. So instead, have a super simple Eton Mess inspired recipe. Inspired being the key word here.



As per usual I used a simple Mary Berry recipe from her Baking Bible as the base for these cakes but I added a little bit of baking soda to get a bit more of a rise.

100g softened butter

150g sifted self-raising flour

150g sifted caster sugar

3 tablespoons of milk

2 large eggs

1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla extract 

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.

2. Line a cupcake tin with 12 cases. 

3. Measure all your ingredients into a bowl and blend until smooth. (So simple.)

4. Bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and golden brown and a knife comes out clean when inserted into the centre.

5. Leave to cool completely before decorating. You can make the buttercream while you wait. 

 

The icing is also a really simple buttercream with a few additional extras. 

600g sifted icing sugar 

300g unsalted softened butter

1/2 a teaspoon of strawberry flavouring

red or pink food colouring

disposable piping bag

piping nozzle of your choice 
1 tablespoon of strawberry jam

1. Cream together the butter and icing sugar until smooth.

2. Add your food colouring and flavouring and stir thoroughly. 

3. Stir in the strawberry jam. You can mix this in thoroughly or leave somewhat streaky to add an almost marbled effect.

4. If you find the buttercream too thick to pipe add a tablespoon of milk at a time until it's the perfect consistency. Alternatively add icing sugar to thicken. 

5. Decorate as you like! I used these adorable mini meringues and some fresh strawberries. 

 

I promise next time I'll be back with something a little more inventive that I hopefully won't mess up as badly. What will you be baking this Summer?