Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with French Vanilla Frosting

Repeat after me: I MUST TRY THIS FROSTING!!! If you even like vanilla the tiniest bit you will love the French Vanilla Frosting I made to top these cupcakes. It has an amazing flavour, not very sweet but so creamy and moorish you will be licking the bowl clean - you have been warned. As to the cupcake, well a good vanilla cupcake should be the staple of every bakers repertoire, it is so versatile to dress up with a myriad of different frosting: chocolate, cream cheese, caramel, etc. But let me guess... you already have a vanilla cupcake recipe that you think is the best? We all have our favourites depending on our tastes, I like mine light and fluffy, moist but not dense. I also like the vanilla flavour to be the highpoint of the cupcake. This recipe will make 12-14 decent size cupcakes that will impress I promise. Just remember not to over beat when you are incorporating the flour. I also use vanilla bean paste to fleck the cupcake and icing and deepen the vanilla taste, if you cant find vanilla bean paste buy a vanilla bean, cut in half lengthwise and scrape the seeds from one side into the cupcake mixture, and the other half into the frosting mixture. Also add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to each mixture.

Strawberry Tart

This tart is simple to make and will definitely be a crowd please if your family/friends like strawberries - just like my little niece does. I made this last weekend as her extra special dessert the night before they went home as she had been such a sweetheart. I tweaked the original recipe a bit as I like to make sure the strawberry flavour really come through, one way to do this is to 'boil down' the strawberries, adding a bit of water and sugar if you wish. If you don't want to put the strawberry cream, coulis and strawberries in a pastry shell you could try layering the mixture in a dessert glass (wine or martini glasses for individual servings). If you decided to make the servings in glasses, try making a half batch of the pastry and crumbling it on top of the strawberry layers.