Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes and Mini Sponges

A few happy coincidences occurred to bring these into existence.  Firstly, I found out that my housemates like cake; but then again, in all honesty, who doesn’t.  Perhaps less predictably, they also like strawberries.  In the final happy twist of fate, the farmers market on campus is selling these sweet, juicy, big red strawberries that taste like heaven in fruit form.  These were all the excuses I needed to whip out The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook and make these old favourites again.

There was a slight glitch.  When the cupcakes came out of the oven, they also came out of the cases.  It might have been something to do with the new cases - cheerful colours with white polka dots – but the faithful old white ones also let me down.  This suggests that it was the mixture itself.  The strawberries were extra ripe and a bit squishy, which could have made the cases slip off.  In any case, while some behaved themselves and stayed put it was clear that a rescue mission was in order.

I had never iced cupcakes in that pretty, delicate, swirly way; I usually just slap mounds of it on until there’s a satisfactory cake to icing ratio.  The first few cupcakes were a bit of an experiment, with lopsided results, and the last few were not much better, but with a coating of forgiving digestive biscuits and two well-placed strawberry quarters, they almost looked refined.  Now for the rescue operation.  I decided to make them look like mini strawberry sponge cakes.  I turned them out of the cases so the strawberries were on the top and then covered these in piped icing, digestives and strawberry quarters.  They almost looked deliberate; delicate treats for garden parties, picnics and chilly October days.

So how do you show your supremely supportive, downright delightful and entirely excellent housemates your appreciation?  While others may choose some form of interpretive dance, for me the solution is a piece of cake.  Or maybe just a strawberry.

For Grace, Jonny, Miriam and Tom