Strawberry Fare

I have not had a chance to go to the fruit and vege markets in Sandringham since I started my holidays due to a very busy start and then time away. This morning after a much needed coffee at Atomic, Isabella and I stocked up at the market - including a couple of huge bunches of coriander which I can't wait to cook with.
The produce for sale all looked a bit worse for wear, no doubt due to the very wet summer we have had.
Our main mission was to find strawberries - despite being told by several sources that this might be difficult due to the weather. We found 2 stalls selling them, neither were as cheap as they usually are this time of year but Isabella had her heart set on making strawberry cupcakes for her friend Jaime who is coming this afternoon.

We made the cupcakes and then a big pot of strawberry jam.
The cupcakes were ok but I'd use the vanilla cup cake recipe I've posted previously and just add 1/3 cup of chopped strawberries in the future.

The jam was made using 'jam sugar' which had added pectin to make it set. I've not really made jam before so decided to cheat a bit.

Thank you Rachel for the cup cake stand for Christmas.

This recipe is from the back of the Jam Sugar packet and is also on the 'Chelsea Sugar' website

Super Quick Strawberry Jam

Ingredients
1kg Strawberries (hulled and rinsed)
1kg Chelsea Jam Setting Sugar
A Knob of Butter (10g)

1. Crush strawberries coarsely with a potato masher or blender.
2. Place strawberries and sugar in a large, heavy based 6 litre pot.
3. Heat mixture over a low heat until sugar is dissolved. Do not allow to boil.
4. Add a knob of butter then increase heat and bring to a full boil (a boil that cannot be stirred down).
5. Boil for 4 minutes only. Remove from heat, skim off any foam, test for set and bottle in pre-sterilised jars