Iron Cupcake Bake Off

Today i've entered my first Cupcake competition, I don't have a hope in hell of winning but l thought l would give a try anyway. These are the instructions we were given-
"If there is one thing I love about summer, aside from the sun, the fresh air and the outdoor parties, it is the delicious BLACKBERRIES, BLUEBERRIES, STRAWBERRIES, AND RASPBERRIES. Use any combination or focus on just one. It is your choice for our JUNE 2009 challenge - SUMMER BERRY CUPCAKES" and these are the prizes that we could win -

Our June ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:
A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH,
A groovy linocut piece from BLOCKHEAD PRESS
a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery,
PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!
Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, JESSIE STEELE APRONS; TASTE OF HOME books; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers .

As we are in winter, a lot of the fruits that l would normally use are not in season. So l decided to make a "Strawberries and Cream" Vanilla Bean Cupcake that has a layer of Strawberries that have been soaked in Champagne, the topping is a vanilla bean cream with fresh strawberries and shaved chocolate.

I shall keep you posted with how l go!

Enjoy!
Yx

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
125g Butter, softened
3 Eggs
1 1/2 Cups plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2/3 Cup Caster Sugar
1/4 Cup Milk
1/2 Vanilla Bean Pod
1 Punnet of Strawberries
1/2 Cup of Champange

Vanilla Bean Cream
1 Cup of Whipping Cream
2 Tablespoons of icing Sugar
1/2 Vanilla Pod

Thinly slice approximatley 6 Strawberries, once cut soak the strawberries in the Champagne.

Place butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, vanilla bean and milk into a mixing bowl and mix for 4 minutes until the mixture is fluffy and pale in colour.

Place a large tablespoon of mixture into the cupcake case, then place a layer of the thinly sliced strawberries, then cover with another large tablespoon of mixture.

Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

For the Vanilla Bean Cream

Scrape the seeds from the remaining Vanilla Pod and place in the cream, along with the icicing sugar.
Mix until cream has stiffened.

When cakes have cooled, pipe the cream onto the top and decorate with a fresh strawberry and some shaved chocolate.