Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes

Step 1

Prepare your cupcake tin by lining it with muffin liners and preheat your oven to 175℃ / 350℉ (no fan).

Step 2

In a large bowl, cream the room-temperature butter and sugar for a few minutes until light and fluffy. Then, whip in the room-temperature eggs one by one, and finally, mix in the vanilla extract.

Step 3

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. This is your dry ingredients. Reduce the mixer speed to low speed and add the dry ingredients in thirds alternating with the room temperature milk. Do not overmix the batter at this point.

Step 4

In a small bowl, mix vinegar with the baking soda. It will be super bubbly. Then, immediately fold the vinegar mixture into the batter just until it's combined.

Step 5

Pipe or spoon the batter evenly into the cavities of your cupcake tin, filling each one about ¾ full.

Step 6

Bake the cupcake for about 20-22 minutes at 175℃ / 350℉ or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Do not overbake them, as they can dry out. Cool the baked cupcakes on a cooling rack. They must be at room temperature before frosting.

Step 7

Place very cold 36% fat-content heavy cream and cold 41% fat-content mascarpone into a mixing bowl along with the sifted powdered sugar.

Step 8

Whip it up with an electric hand mixer for a minute, and then add the vanilla.

Step 9

The whipped cream frosting reaches a fluffy and pipeable consistency after about 2-3 minutes. You will have to stop at early hard peaks (straight after soft peaks). If you continue whipping, the frosting will separate, get runny, and then it will turn into butter.

Step 10

Move the frosting into a piping bag.

Step 11

Wash and finely chop the strawberries.

Step 12

When the cupcakes are chilled to room temperature, pipe the frosting on top and place some chopped strawberries in the middle of the frosting. Alternatively, make a teaspoon of holes on each vanilla cupcake base and fill them also with the chopped strawberries.

Step 13

Serve the cupcakes fresh. Any leftovers can be stored covered and refrigerated for 1-2 days.