Strawbubble Cupcakes British Delicious Recipe

Exclusive recipe from our friend Theresa at the New York Cake Co

There is a food and wine revolution happening in the UK. From producers making world beating English Sparkling Wine to pioneering famers growing black quinoa local, sustainable, delicious home-grown produce is here. So, get on board, get stuck in and get cooking.  

Our food blogs will bring you ideas and recipes to create your own dishes using only British sourced ingredients and there’s a whole lot more to British Delicious than shepherd’s pie.  

Our friend Theresa from New York Cake Company is a native New Yorker who is now living in London via 8 years in Australia. She knows a thing or two about making delicious desserts from locally sourced ingredients and loves to take classic pairings and twist them up.   Here’s her take on an English food and wine pairing classic: strawberries and bubbles. 

Strawbubble Cupcakes 

Talya and Simon invited me over for drinks on their terrace back in the scorching summer of ‘22 and served Kentish strawberries and a glass of Langham Classic Cuvee: “classic food and wine pairing but no more champagne here, it’s all English Sparkling Wine.”  The sweetness of strawberry and the dryness of Langham is the inspiration behind my strawbubble cupcakes. I used Charmat for this recipe as it’s better to save traditional method English Sparkling Wines to enjoy by the glass. 

Cupcake Ingredients 

200g unsalted English butter, softened
200g Silver Spoon Caster Sugar – Silver Spoon use English sugar beet and produce sugar in the UK.
3 free range British Eggs, room temperature. Purely Organic eggs are the only egg producer in the UK to use carbon neutral packaging.
200g self-raising flour. Check the packet for country of origin: Tesco does a great range of everyday flour from UK sourced wheat.
2 tbsp milk  

Buttercream icing Ingredients

250g Silver Spoon icing sugar
125g unsalted English butter, softened

Strawberry syrup Ingredients 

200g of strawberries – ones going slightly soft are great for this.
500ml charmat – I used Prince Charmat
100g Silver Spoon Caster Sugar 

Method

1. Reduce the strawberries, charmat and icing sugar to about half volume to make a rich syrup. Stir regularly whilst simmering to stop the bottom of the pan burning. 
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar using an electric mixer until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing until the egg is completely incorporated into the batter before adding the next. Room temperature eggs help to keep your cupcakes fluffy. If they aren’t room temperature put them in warm water for 5 minutes.  
3. Fold in the flour with a large wooden or metal spoon until there are no traces of flour left.  
4. Spoon into cupcakes – about 50g per cake and bake in a 180 or 160 fan oven for about 25 minutes until the cupcakes are soft.  
5. Take out and put on a wire rack. Prick each cupcake while still warm and pour 2 tbs of the strawberry and charmat syrup into each cupcake while still warm. 
6. To make the buttercream icing, sift half the icing sugar into a bowl with the softened butter and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the remaining icing sugar then beat in the remaining strawberry charmat syrup.  
7. Using a palette knife or spatula, spread about a tablespoon of icing onto each cake. This buttercream makes enough for a modest swirl if you want to use a piping bag. 
8. Serve with extra strawberries and a small glass of the remaining Charmat.