Cupcake Jemma: Neapolitan Cupcakes

I’ve always loved Neapolitan — vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate all in one. So when I came across Cupcake Jemma’s Neapolitan cupcake recipe, I couldn’t resist trying it. These cupcakes start with a chocolate biscuit base, then a fluffy vanilla sponge, and finish with a strawberry-jam infused buttercream. Soft, pretty, and full of layers of flavour — they’re a treat for ice cream lovers and cupcake fans alike.

 

Ingredients:

For the Chocolate Base Layer:

• 200g bourbon chocolate biscuits
• 50g melted butter
• 1 tbsp golden syrup

For the Vanilla Sponge Layer:

• 125g self-raising flour
• 125g caster sugar
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 125g unsalted butter, soft
• 2 large free range eggs
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tbsp whole milk

For the Strawberry Buttercream Layer:

• 200g unsalted butter, soft
• 450g sifted icing sugar
• 6-8 tbsp strawberry jam, seedless and smooth

Method:

1. Pop the bourbon biscuits into a food processor and buzz until fine crumbs (or just put in a sandwich bag and bash with a wooden rolling pin until crumbs).
2. Add the bourbon biscuits crumbs, the melted butter and the golden syrup into a bowl and mix until combined. Spoon 1 tbsp of the mixture into 12 liners in a cupcake tray and press down with your fingers or a 1/2 cup measuring spoon as this fits perfectly. Leave to one side.
3. Using a stand mixer - in the bowl add the flour, caster sugar, bicarbonate of soda, butter and the 2 eggs. Mix for about a minute on medium so that all the ingredients are combined and you have a golden yellow batter. Slow the mixer down and add the vanilla and milk and beat for another 15-30 seconds until combined.
4. Spoon a ping pong sized ball of mixture onto each biscuit layer. Bake at 170℃ for 20-22 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when pressed into the centre. Let the cakes cool completely before doing anything else.
5. Using the stand mixer again add the butter to the bowl and beat on medium to high for about 5 minutes until its gone nice and pale.
6. Stop the mixer and add half of the icing sugar. Beat again for another 5 minutes. Stop and add the last of the icing sugar and beat again for another 5 minutes. You should end up with pale, white, fluffy buttercream.
7. At the the time of the recipe strawberries were not in season so Jemma used a high-fruit content strawberry jam (I found it in Tesco). Just whizz it in a food processor to make it smooth. You can sieve it too if you don't want seeds in it.
8. With the mixer of slow - add as much or as little jam as you want to colour and flavour the icing. Jemma added around 6-8 tbsp of jam. I think I added around 4 tbsp.
9. Optional: Because of the amount of icing vs jam - the icing will go a pale pink - Jemma did colour her first batch of cupcakes with pink food colouring to get a really vibrant pink colour - but the choice is yours. Pale pink is just as good :)
10. Decorate your cupcakes with wafers like Jemma or I forgot to buy them so I just decorated with some leftover jam I had.