Bake #5: Jenny Bakes Strawberry-Jam Tea Cakes

They say variety is the spice of life but for this week, Variety is the filling of my teacakes! I decided to hold a mini contest on these petite goodies by changing up the filling a bit. Besides, that section on the inside of my refrigerator door is completely over-laden with unopened jars of jams, preserves, confitures and chutneys, causing the door the jam each time we shut it.
I love collecting stuffs- all kinds of stuffs. If only I get paid a dime for every collection, I'd be mighty rich by now! And same for each time I digress!!

Now, where was I? Oh yes. The contenders:

• Mountain Fig jam
• Peanut Butter
• Strawberry jam
• Kaya - a type of Malaysian Coconut jam,

I liked the richness of the coconut jam
but it overpowered the delicate sponge cake in this combination. The peanut butter was just a tad too nutty

From left: peanut-butter and coconut jam

I think it would be great if I had layered in some sweet jelly (à la PBJ teacakes) and the fig jam flavor paled in comparison with the strawberry preserves. So after much deliberation with the judges - all three of them : moi, myself and I (!!!) - the final verdict was delivered....and the winner of the best filling for these cutie teacakes?

............*drumroll*..............

Ladies and gentlemen: Strawberry Jam Teacakes.
One thing to note, I found the cake somewhat dry eventhough I baked mine at 330˚F for ~ 22 minutes; Martha's recipe called for 30 minutes of baking time at even higher temp of 350˚F! So do monitor your cakes in the oven very carefully.

Thanks for another fantastic pick Tina! Strawberry Fields Forever! ;-)

Bake #5: Tina bakes Strawberry-Jam Tea Cakes

For some endearing reason this cake reminded me of my innocent childhood... of strawberry jam sandwiches for school recess. The uncomplicated taste of cake and strawberry jam - what could be more wholesome than that? Perhaps that was the reason why this particular cake was the first I was attracted to when I initially glanced through MS' Cupcakes.

This is a simple, sweet sweet cake. Pop it in your mouth, close your eyes and think happy thoughts. I did!!

definitely the cake to have on a cold, rainy day... coupled with your fav cuppa

I only wish I had remembered to reduce the amount of sugar in the cake batter, like I always do in all recipes. It was excrutiatingly S-W-E-E-T!! the sweet cake, the jam and the glaze... can be over-powering even for sweet-toothed me :) Other than that, it was lovely..

This recipe yield 6 jumbo cupcakes and .... 64 mini ones!! I purposely baked them in mini sizes so my girls and I could bring them to school/work... after all good things are meant to be shared!! So after our fair share of cakes and tea, all three of us brought about 18 mini ones each for our friends :)

And as I was arranging the jumbo cupcakes and strawberries for my photo shoot, my little one diced some strawberries to garnish the mini ones. I thought they looked very pretty... and popping the cake with fresh, somewhat soury strawberries into your mouth evened out the sweetness of the cake. Brilliant!!

These pretty little cakes will definitely make its appearance at the dessert spread at my next party!!

post-publish update: hate the way how these photos look 'foggy' when published. the quality definitely dropped a few notches...

Bake #5: Strawberry-Jam Tea Cakes

Yet another great pick by Tina. This is a very versatile petite cake; Martha says you can use any variety of jam for the filling as well as vary the type of citrus used in the batter and in the glaze. Try it and let us know what you think. We look forward to hearing from more FWB bakers out there!! And if you haven't done so, do check out THE BOOK!

Strawberry-Jam Tea Cakes (page 117)

Ingredients
*makes 16 cupcakes
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp (plus more for greasing tins) - note: USA measurement 1 stick = 4 oz = 8 tablespoons

3 cups all-purpose flour (plus more for tin)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tsp finely grated orange zest

4 large eggs, separated, room temp

1/2 cup milk

1 cup strawberry jam or preserves

*Citrus Glaze (made with orange juice and zest)

Method:
1. Preheat over to 350˚F. Butter and lightly dust standard muffin tins with flour, tapping our excess. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

2. With electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter, sugar and orange zest until pale and fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time. Reduce speed to low. Add dry ingredients in 3 batches, alternating with two additions of milk and beating until just combined.

3. In another bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk egg whites to soft peaks, gently fold into batter. Spoon ~ 2 tablespoons batter into each prepared cupc, make an indentation in the middle of each, fill with 1 tablespoon jam then top with additional 2 tablespoons batter, covering the jam completely.

4. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers of top layers comes out clean (~30 minutes). Remove from oven, turn out cakes onto cooling racks and allow to cool

5. To finish, drizzle cakes evenly with glaze and let set, ~ 30 minutes. Glazed cupcakes can be stored up to 2 days in a single layer at room temp. in airtight containers.

*Citrus Glaze (page 315) - makes ~ 1 cup

1 1/2 powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 tsp finely grated citrus zest
3 Tbls fresh citrus juice

Whisk altogether until smooth. If necessary, add more sugar to thicken or more juice to thin the glaze. Use immediately.