Jubilee Cupcakes

When I think of great British food, roast beef, summer pudding and cream teas come to mind. I'm talking about cream teas with proper clotted cream. The real yellow stuff which is thick almost butter like with a crust on top. Add lashings of strawberry jam on a fresh scone and you can see why this is one of the nation's favourite tea time treats. In the Jubilee fever I am making a cupcake inspired by my favourite quintessential British tradition; The Cream Tea. Which leads me to my creation...an Earl Grey infused cupcake with a strawberry jam filling and clotted cream icing.

I'll be noshing on one of these as I watch the Thames Diamond Jubilee Flotilla go by, probably under my brollie if weather prediction is correct and cink, cinking to Her Majesty for her epic 60 years!

Ingredients

Earl Grey Cupcakes
200g flour
150g caster sugar
125g butter
125 ml milk
10 ml baking powder
2 eggs
2 Earl grey tea bags
1 jar of strawberry jam

Clotted Cream Icing
40g clotted cream
50g butter
250g sifted icing sugar
5 ml vanilla essence
a touch of milk (if needed)

Method
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.
Put the milk into a pan, bring almost to the boil, remove from the heat and steep the 2 Earl Grey tea bags in the milk for 30 minutes.

Set out 24 paper cups liners in a muffin pan.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one.

Then add all the other ingredients and beat until very smooth and creamy. This is about 5 minutes with an electric mixer.

Divide the batter between the muffin pans, filling to 2/3 full.

Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown and firm. Use a toothpick to check.

Allow to cool. Then carefully cut a out small section of the top of each cupcake and fill with strawberry jam. Then ice cupcake with clotted cream icing.