Strawberry-swirled cupcakes

If you’ve seen my self-frosting Nutella cupcakes, these strawberry-swirled cupcakes were made following the same principle. The cupcake batter is poured into the molds of a muffin pan, a tablespoonful of strawberry jam is added, then, using the tip of a bamboo skewer, the strawberry jam is swirled into the batter. When the cupcakes come out of the oven, you have those pretty marbled patterns of red on the yellow cupcakes.

I baked these last night for my daughters who are home for the weekend. Sam especially loves strawberries. There were about eight large pieces left in the fridge (leftovers from the frozen strawberry daiquiri, the recipe for which I will be posting later) so I pureed them, stirred in some sugar and heated the mixture until thickened. The cooled mixture was what I used for the cupcakes. You can also use store-bought strawberry jam. The trick, really, is to use thick jam, heated a bit just to make it stirrable. If the jam is too watery, it will sink to the bottom of the cupcakes during baking.

Adapted from the yellow cupcake recipe in Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes.

Strawberry-swirled cupcakes

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Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Servings: 12

Author: Connie Veneracion

Ingredients

• 1 and 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 and 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter + 1 tablespoon, softened to room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk (to make your own buttermilk, squeeze half a lemon into a measuring cup then pour in enough whole milk to measure one cup)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 12 tablespoons strawberry jam

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Line a 12-hole muffin pan with paper cups.
• In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. You can do this by hand, with a wire whisk, or an electric mixer. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.
• Add the flour mixture and milk alternately, mixing after each addition, starting and ending with the flour.
• Divide the batter among the 12 holes of the muffin pan. Each hole should be about 3/4 to 4/5 full. Tap the pan gently to make sure that there are no air pockets at the bottom.
• Top each hole with a tablespoonful of strawberry jam. Using the tip of a bamboo skewer, lightly swirl the strawberry jam with the cake batter. Swirl at the surface only — avoid dipping the skewer too deeply into the batter as this may cause the jam to sink.
• Bake the cupcakes for 20 minutes in a 350F oven. Cool for about five minutes in the pan then transfer to a wire rack to cool some more.
• These strawberry-swirled cupcakes can be served warm or at room temperature.