Celebrate summer with these Strawberries and Cream cupcakes. Light and fluffy sultana cakes filled with strawberry jam and finished with clotted cream buttercream and fresh fruit. The traditional cream tea in cake form!
Here comes summer!
Wait! Stop right there.
Yes, there. Can you smell it?
That… that’s it, the unmissable smell of summer!
Welcome to warm, light evenings, the sound of laughter and glasses clinking as we dine outside at any given opportunity and the smell of charcoal-grilled food that drifts from garden to garden.
Get the picture? Great, hold it there… and relax!
Summer eating for me is the ultimate chilled dining experience – whether it’s G&T and a packet of crisps (yes, I’m that classy, must be cheese and onion though). Or is it everyone over to the neighbours to witness the spectacle of men playing with fire, all in the name of food!
Summer dining is all about “chillin’ out, maxin’, relaxin’ all cool” (try and get that out of your head now, lol!)
If you want to skip the essential info and handy tips for making absolutely the best cupcakes, then you can head on down to the printable recipe card for these insanely delicious strawberries and cream cupcakes. Just keep scrolling!
For me, summer also heralds the arrival of the afternoon tea.
Now I know that this great British institution isn’t necessarily a seasonal thing, but if I said “afternoon tea, what do you think of first?
How about perfectly trimmed finger sandwiches daintily filled with all manner of things; let’s just gloss over cucumber in sarnies (cucumber isn’t a good idea full-stop)?
Or do you find your mind wandering to the golden fruit scones smothered in sweet and sticky, ruby-red strawberry jam and dolloped with clotted cream?
I bet you anything that your first thought was the scone… the King of the Afternoon Tea, the Queen of the Cream Tea.
The Best Cupcake Ever*
*according to my Brother
Back when had my small but perfectly formed, and quite honestly amazing smelling cupcake shop in Cirencester, the summer months were continually punctuated with “do you do cream teas?”
It made me question though, what if I did do a ‘cream tea’…
How awesome would it be to transform that into a cake?
A portable cream tea and there was born my afternoon-tea inspired, strawberries and cream cupcakes… one of the shop and my brother’s favourites of all time!
How to make strawberries and cream cupcakes
These cupcakes are a winning combination of cake, fruit, jam and the cream. I guarantee that you’ll wow everyone with them!
- Start with your best vanilla cake recipe then add a good handful of golden sultanas; make sure they are well mixed – you don’t want them all in one cupcake or sitting at the bottom of the pan.
- Core the cupcakes rather than slicing a dome out of the top of them – this way you get plenty of jam inside – forget fancy cupcake corers, go straight for an apple corer for a cheaper alternative
- Fill them with the best strawberry jam you can get – not necessarily one with too much actual fruit in it, you want it relatively smooth for the optimal jam to cake ratio
- Top it off with the ultimate sugar rush in the form of whipped vanilla and clotted cream buttercream
- Decorate with the first, sweet and sunny strawberries of the season
- Then eat… may I suggest a fork… and a bib!
Top tips for perfect cupcakes
- Flour your sultanas – before adding them into your cake batter, toss the sultanas in a little flour. This will help them stay distributed throughout the cupcake, rather than sinking straight to the bottom.
- Apple corer – the best way to core out the centre of a cupcake to add a filling. Keep the cored cupcake and pop it back in the top of the cake, or they’re baker’s offcuts perfect for taste testing.
- Wilton 2D nozzle – make sure you use a wide enough nozzle so that you end up with a perfect swirl on top of your cupcake. This is an indulgent cupcake so you want plenty of frosting.
View my Amazon shopping list with all the items I used to make this recipe.
Looking for more recipe inspiration
If you want to try out some other delicious cupcake recipes then look no further than these…
Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes
- 200 g Butter Salted
- 200 g Caster Sugar or Superfine Sugar
- 4 Eggs Medium
- 1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
- 200 g Self-Raising Flour or Cake Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 100 g Sultanas
For the Clotted Cream Cupcake
- 250 g Icing Sugar or Powdered Sugar
- 200 g Butter Salted
- 50 g Clotted Cream
- 1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
To Fill and Decorate
- Strawberry Jam
- Strawberries
Instructions
- To make the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 180C/350F and line a deep muffin tray with 12 cupcake cases.
- Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until softened. Alternatively, you can make the cake batter, in a large mixing bowl, by hand or with an electric hand whisk.
- Add the caster sugar to the softened butter and cream until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, to the creamed mixture. Beat well between adding each egg. Then add the vanilla bean paste.
- Sift the flour and baking powder together, and add to the mixture. Gently mix together until the cake batter is soft and smooth. Add the sultanas and gently fold into the batter.
- Use an ice cream scoop to divide the batter between the cupcake cases, approximately 1 scoop per case.
- Bake for 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
- To make the buttercream: In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat the butter until soft. Add the vanilla bean paste and half of the icing sugar and clotted cream. Beat until smooth.
- Add the remaining icing sugar and clotted cream. Beat until smooth. Be careful not to overbeat the frosting as the cream will slacken and maybe runny when piping. If the buttercream is too stiff, add a tsp of whole milk and beat until smooth.
- To assemble the cupcakes: With an apple corer hollow the cupcakes and fill with the strawberry jam.
- Fill a piping bag, fitted with a nozzle, with the clotted cream buttercream. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes in a swirl shape.
- Decorate with fresh strawberries and eat!
Notes
- As they have fresh fruit on the top, the cupcakes are best eaten within 1 day, or top off with fruit when you’re ready to serve.
- Not a fan of strawberries – how about swapping them out for raspberries? The tart flavour will cut through the sweet cake and buttercream.
- I normally top off with strawberries, raspberries and red currants for lots of fruit but I couldn’t find any red currants this time – maybe you could try black currants instead?
Nutrition
DISCLAIMER
The nutritional information provided is approximate and is calculated using online tools. Information can vary depending on various factors, but we have endeavoured to be as accurate as possible.
Hi Lou,
I made these cupcakes this morning and have just now sampled their delights. Absolutely delicious! What a wonderful Summer recipe. The clotted cream makes all the difference and evokes the magic of Summer eating. I am taking some over to my friend’s house tomorrow and am just dying to see their reactions!!
Thank you so much for this recipe, it’s going to be another family classic.
Barbara xx
Hi Barbara – that’s fantastic to hear, they are one of my most favourite flavours. There’s something that reminds me of sultana fairy cakes that we used to have at school fetes and the strawberry jam makes them a little extra special. The clotted cream buttercream is a little piece of cake heaven and so indulgent. I hope that your friends loved them too 🙂 It’s my brother’s birthday soon and they are his favourites, I’m going to have to make them again and treat him xx
Tried, tested and according to my brother… “Once you’ve had these there’s no other cupcake to be had!!!”