I’ve been on a baking spree lately, which I can blame on three things:

1. I keep offering to bake, and people don’t turn me down
2. There have been a lot of beautiful afternoon teas and birthdays which require decadent cakes and cupcakes
3. I’ve had a lot of spare time lately, and seem to be filling it by watching all of Cupcake Jemma‘s videos.

I’d been dying to make this particular kind since I first stumbled across her channel, and when I offered to make some cupcakes for Brooke and Sean’s Engagement Afternoon Tea, I couldn’t resist trying these out.

The cupcake I was itching to make was indeed the Neapolitan cupcakes; full of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry layers. An ice-cream lover’s dream.

For those of you playing along at home, line your cupcake tray with paper cases, and whack that oven on 180 degrees C. {This recipe will make 12 delicious morsels}

Grab yourself 200g of Bourbon biscuits, or any chocolate biscuit with a chocolate cream inside, and whiz them up in a food processor to make a fine crumb. {Side note: doesn’t it look like these biscuits are floating? They were in a glass bowl, hehe}

Add 50g melted butter and a tablespoon of golden syrup to your biscuits, combine and pop them into the paper cases. Give them a little push so they make a nice base.

Having made a biscuit base before, and knowing I wanted it to be properly set, I blind baked these for 5 minutes before adding the batter in. This is your call though!

To make the vanilla batter, add 250g softened butter and 2 large eggs to 250g sifted self raising flour, 250g caster sugar and 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda. Using a free-standing or hand mixer, combine well and distribute among the paper cases.

Pop these in the oven for 22 minutes, until golden, springy to the touch and when a skewer comes out clean.

Now, you can move onto the icing; the strawberry-ness and deliciousness!
Grab yourself a jar of good quality strawberry jam (I recommend this one) and whaz it up in a food processor until smooth.

In your mixer, pop 200g soft unsalted butter and mix until light and creamy. Then we add in 450g sifted icing sugar in two stages (otherwise you’ll end up with a light layer of icing sugar covering your entire kitchen). Finally, grab your jam and add in 6 – 8 tablespoons, mixing well, until the icing is perrrrrfecto.

By now your cupcakes should be done and dusted. Leave them to cool on a wire rack, and once they’re room temp you can get to the fun part! {I made two batches, in case you were wondering why the cases went in pink, and came out yellow 😉 }

Ice your babies with a piping bag all fancy like, or by hand, no judgements here!

I topped mine with some wafers, and took them along to the celebrations. I love baking at the best of times, but it’s so much fun baking for someone’s big day. I had these two love birds in mind the whole time I was making these, and even though it’s only something small, it’s nice to be able to contribute.

Happy engagement Brooke & Sean! I’ve got nothing but sugar-coated love for you both…

Hanbel.
x

P.s. stay tuned for the next round I’ve got my eye on … White Russian Cupcakes {anyone a Big Lebowski fan?}