May 2012: Strawberry Cream cakes

One of my favourite combinations of cake is vanilla sponge with whipped cream and strawberry's. It's divine, sweet, light and a picnic classic.

All you need to do is make up a batch of the basic recipe using Vanilla extract as your flavouring. While they are baking you want to take half the number of strawberry's as the number of cupcakes you have made out of a punnet of washed and hulled (so in this case 12 - if you're short on strawberry's 1/4 will also work). If you are making a layer cake then you will want 6.

Using a blender (stick or jug doesn't matter) blend the rest of the strawberry's with a tablespoon of Icing sugar - put to one side.

Whip some double cream (about 500ml should be fine) with 1tsp of Vanilla extract and 1tbsp of Icing sugar.

If making cupcakes then cut off the raised top of the cupcake, baring the fluffy cake underneath and apply a little of the strawberry goop to each one (this stops the goop from sliding off), if doing a layer cake spread across the top of the bottom layer of the cake.

Pipe the whipped cream on top of each cupcake, or spread across the bottom of the top layer of the layer cake; Put the top layer, on-top of the bottom layer, then spread cream over the top as well.

Finally chop each of the reserved strawberry's in half and place on op of each swirl of cream on the cupcake; for the layer cake Place them as if you were putting one on for each hour on a clock face.

Eat - especially good with a cup of delicately flavoured tea and a cake fork!