Strawberry Short(Cup)Cakes with Paneer-Almond Cream

A Shortcake is a crumbly biscuit made with baking soda or baking powder which is then halved and filled with whipped cream and sweetened fruit like strawberries,peach, blue berries etc. Strawberry shortcake is a popular one.Scones or corn  muffins can also be used as the base of the shortcake. I  presume the idea is to have a base strong enough to hold the cream and fruit and not turn soggy. Usually a shortcake will use chilled cubed butter which is mixed with other dry ingredients till it resembles coarse sand.

Anyway I saw shortcake being turned into shortcupcakes here in a non traditional way and adapted this. I had quartered the recipe to suit me and since I did not have cream, I made fake cream using almond and paneer and it was delicious.

Ingredients:

Cupcakes :Gives around 8 crumbly cupcakes

Butter: 1/4 cup room temperature
Sugar: 6 tbsp
Baking Powder: 3/4 tsp
Salt: pinch

Egg: 1 or Ener G egg: 1 (1.5 packed tsp mixed with 2 tbsp water)
Milk: 1/4 cup
Vanilla : 1 tsp

All Purpose Flour: 10 tbsp + 2 tsp

Strawberries: Hulled and sliced and mixed with enough sugar: as needed

Paneer Almond Cream

Paneer: 1 cup

Almond powdered coarsely: 4 tbsp

Powdered Sugar: 4 tbsp or as per taste

Milk/SoyMilk: 3 tbsp or more as needed

Almond Extract: 1/4 tsp

Preparation:

Cupcakes:

Beat butter,sugar,baking powder and salt till well blended. Beat in the egg and add in the milk and vanilla. The mixture will look curdled.Add in flour and beat at  low speed till just combined, Pour into muffin tins lined and greased till 2/3 full.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for about 20-25 minutes or more until the tester comes out clean.Keep an eye on the oven 18th minute onwards.

Take out, cool in the muffin tin for about 5 minutes, after which invert onto the wire rack and let it cool completely.

Meanwhile wash and hull the strawberries and slice them thinly. Mix with little or enough sugar and let them sit for an hour or so.

Prepare the paneer almond cream by blending together all the ingredients.

Assembling the Short(Cup)Cake:

Slice the cupcake horizontally into 2 equal parts.On one half,spoon 1-2 tbsp of cream on the cut side and top with sweet strawberry slices along with little juice that has come out. Cover with the other half cut side down.Top with more cream and /or sweet berry slices.

A delish dessert or snack with the queen of berries. The paneer almond cream was much better than expected and I did not miss the traditional whipped cream at all. The cupcake were crumbly and few were cracked on top. I was scared to slit them  as I thought they may be torn. Thankfully they behaved nicely and I could give a nice farewell to the pink berries (Sighs).There goes my last strawberry post.