Monday 12 September 2011

Pistachio, Almond & Rose Cupcakes for Cupcake Week

Hello all!

It's been a while I know but national cupcake week has inspired me to kick start my blogging once again and hopefully, fingers crossed I am going to stick with it this time!

To start me off - I'm going to create a fabulous new cupcake for each day this week to help celebrate cupcake week. In true Devnaa fashion the aim is to create a selection of Indian inspired flavours that look as good as they taste and then share the recipe and some pictures here with you at the end of the day.

Today's recipe is a new take on our classic Pistachio & Rose cupcake. We've pumped up the flavour by adding an almond cream filling for an extra dimension of scrumptiousness! The Devnaa crew seem to like it - I left one aside and came back 5 minutes later to find it had vanished! Give it a go and let us know what you think. Happy Baking :)

Pistachio, Almond & Rose Cupcakes (makes 12)

Ingredients for the sponge base:
100g Shelled Pistachio Nuts
200g Butter
200g Caster Sugar
3 Eggs
200g Self Raising Flour
125ml Milk

Method:
  • Start by pre heating your oven to gas mark 4/350F/180C and line your cupcake tin
  • Place the pistachio nuts in a frying pan and dry roast over a medium heat until fragrant, about 5 minutes, then switch off the heat and leave the nuts aside to cool
  • Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fuffy
  • Add the eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly between each addition and scraping the edges of your bowl as required
  • Add half of the sifted flour and gently fold it in until fully incorporated
  • Add one third of the milk and fold this in too
  • Add the remaining flour and fold in completely
  • Add the remaining milk as required, a little at a time until your batter becomes smooth and is of dropping consistency
  • Quickly grind up the pistachio nuts and fold them into the mixture
  • Divide the cupcake batter equally between the cupcake cases
  • Bake in the centre of your oven for about 20 minutes or until lightly golden, springy and the skewer test comes out clean
  • Cool on a wire rack.
Ingredients for almond cream:
100ml Whipping Cream
2 tblsp Caster Sugar
2 tblsp Almond Powder (lightly roast some almonds and grind down into a powder)
1/4 tsp Almond Extract

Method:
  • Whip the cream together with the sugar until it reaches a soft peak consistency
  • Fold in the almond powder and extract
Ingredients for rose buttercream:
175g Butter
300g Icing sugar (sifted)
1 tblsp Rose Extract (the better the quality, the better the flavour!)
Food colouring if desired

Method:
  • Beat the butter until soft and creamy
  • beat in the rose extract
  • Slowly beat in the icing sugar making sure it combines well
Assembly:
  • Using your thumb, poke a hole into the top of each cupcake, pressing until about hal way down (if you prefer you can cut a small disc out instead of pushing it down but this way is easier and less wasteful)
  • Place the almond cream into a piping bag and fill the craters in the cupcakes until just oozing over the top
  • Fill a piping bag with the rose buttercream and swirl on top as you wish (if you don't have a piping bag you can use spoons just as well to fill and swirl!)
  • Voila!

(Excuse the poor quality of the images, Jay and his SLR aren't here!!! Lol!)

1 comment:

  1. These sound fantastic. I love rose and pistachios too. And they are so pretty. I still haven't mastered a piping bag, but I'm determined to get there.

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