It was the perfect weekend for baked goods and delicious foods. It was a working weekend, but Saturday was a lovely stay-at-home day filled with cold windy weather - ideal for snuggling up with some pretty strawberry swirl cakes!

This delicious recipe began life as Sweetheart Cupcakes based on a raspberry swirl cake but left my kitchen as a strawberry swirl variety (due mostly to the lack of raspberry jam in our home). I've adapted it from my favourite recipe book - the Women's Weekly book of Cupcakes, Cheesecakes and Cookies. 

It's a lovely Australian cook book with thrice-tested recipes (excellent!) so you know that the results are pretty fool-proof. Thank goodness.






















Here's the original recipe for the Sweetheart Cupcakes:

125g butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

150g caster sugar

2 eggs

185g self-raising flour

80ml milk

pink food colouring

2 tablespoons raspberry jam

1. Preheat the oven to 180'C and line a 12-hole cupcake tin with paper cases. I used a 24-hole mini cupcake tin.

2. Beat butter, extract, sugar and eggs in a small bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in the sifted flour and milk, in two batches.

3. Divide the mixture evenly between two bowls. Tint one mixture pink and leave the other one plain. Drop alternate spoonfuls of the mixtures into the cases.

4. Divide the jam among the cases. Pull a skewer backwards and forwards through the mixtures for a swirling effect. Smooth the surface.

5. Bake large cakes about 30 minutes and small cakes about 20 minutes. I baked mine for about 15 minutes in the mini cupcake pan and they were perfect. Turn them out onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

The original recipe called for pink marbled fondant icing, but I opted for swirly buttercream (vanilla flavoured) piped with a 829 nozzle and topped with sugar flowers, edible pearls and edible glitter. I made the sugar flowers using pink colouring, rolled regal icing and sugarcraft flower presses in various sizes.






















The swirly mix of pink and white batters creates a pretty marbled effect - something that would be far more distinct in larger cupcakes but is equally appreciated in mini cupcakes. Plus, the addition of strawberry swirled jam is deeelicious!