Recipe: Strawberries And Cream Cupcakes

Valentine's Day is only a couple of days away and I'm back with my second Valentine's inspired recipe. Today I'm playing with a bit more colour and flavour to try and recreate as closely as possible the taste of the Lindt Strawberries and Cream chocolates that are always released around this time of the year.

Ingredients
- 110g Butter/Stork, softened
- 110g Caster Sugar
- 110g Plain Flour
- 2 Tsp Baking Powder
- 2 Medium Eggs
- 3 Tsp Strawberry Extract
- 1 Tube Of Dr Oetker Pink Gel Food Colouring
- 1 Tub of Berry Crocker Vanilla Buttercream Icing

Method 

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases. 
2. Place the softened butter into a bowl alongside the caster sugar and blend with the paddle attachment of a stand mixer until pale and fluffy. You can also do this by hand with a wooden spoon or a spatula. It'll just take a little longer. 
3. In a seperate bowl, sift together the plain flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Add to the mixture making sure to not do a me and spill flour everywhere.
4. Beat the eggs together and add to the mixture. 
5. Then it's time for your flavouring of choice. As I'm trying to recreate the taste of the Lindt Chocolates, I'm going in with Strawberry flavouring. I normally only use two teaspoons of flavouring but because I wanted this to be quite strong, I added a third. 
6. Now all of that's in the bowl, mix it all together until well combined. Always take a silicone spatula and scrape along the sides of the bowl when you do this to make sure everything is fully incorporated. 
7. Then it's time to add the food colouring. With the tubes of Dr Oetker Gel Colouring, it's always best to add it in gradually, mixing it in between each addition. You don't have to use the whole tube but because I wanted them to be bright pink, I used the whole tube. Maybe overkill but it looked pretty. 
8. Once you've achieved the colour you want and everything is completely combined, it's time to spoon the mixture into the paper cases. Then it's time to pop them in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. 
9. Once cooked, leave to cool for five minutes in the tray and then transfer them over to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. 
10. And like with my Red Velvet Cupcakes, I cheated with the icing. I'm no good at Buttercream or piping gorgeous designs so I went in with what was left of my Betty Crocker Ready To Use Buttercream. A spoonful is enough to cover the top of each cake and I just went in with a pallet knife to smooth it out and create a somewhat decent design. 
11. Then it's just a case of leaving the icing to set. Then once it's set, it's time to enjoy them with friends, family or your one and only.