Raspberry, pistachio and rose cupcakes
Ingredients
- 125 G Unsalted Butter (soft)
- 1-2 Tablespoons Whole Milk
- 2 Teaspoons Raspberry Powder*
- Handful Pistachios (shelled, Unsalted)
- 250 G Icing Sugar
- 6-8 Fresh Raspberries
- 100 G Unsalted Butter (soft)
- 40 G Pistachios (shelled, Unsalted)
- 18-24 Fresh Raspberries
- 2-3 Drops Rose Water
- 30 Ml (2 Tablespoons) Whole Milk
- 1/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
- 125 G Self-raising Flour
- 2 Eggs
- 125 G Caster Sugar (golden Or Normal)
- A Few (optional) Edible Rose Petals
Accompaniment
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Description
Lovely little cakes - a light sponge with a hint of rose water, soft raspberries and a little crunch from the pistachios.
Method
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1
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C.
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2
Line a standard muffin tin with 6-8 paper cases and place 3 raspberries in each one.
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3
Put the soft butter and the caster sugar in a mixing bowl and beat well together until light and fluffy.
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4
Crack the eggs into a cup, beat lightly with a fork and then add to the mixing bowl 1/3 at a time, beating well after each addition.
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5
Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold together with a large spoon.
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6
Add the milk and rosewater and stir together.
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7
Chop the 40 g pistachios with a sharp knife or in a mini food processor.
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8
Fold the chopped pistachios into the mixture.
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9
Using two teaspoons, divide the mixture between the cases, covering the raspberries and filling each case approximately 2/3 full.
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10
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a skewer or cocktail stick comes out clean and they are springy to touch.
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11
Place the baked muffins on a wire rack to cool.
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12
Leave the oven on, spread the extra pistachios out on a small baking tray and toast in the oven for 10-15 minutes.
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13
Remove the toasted pistachios and leave to cool then chop roughly.
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14
Switch off the oven.
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15
For the buttercream, put the butter in a mixing bowl and beat for a couple of minutes until creamy.
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16
Sift in the icing sugar 1/3 at a time, beating well after each addition.
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17
Add 1 tbsp milk and the raspberry powder and beat for 5 minutes until really light and fluffy, adding a little more milk if needed.
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18
Spread or pipe the buttercream onto the cooled cakes and decorate each one with a few chopped, toasted pistachios.
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19
You could also add some edible rose petals and/or a raspberry.
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20
Alternatively, leave off the buttercream and simply dust the cakes with a little icing sugar.
Chef's Tips
Recipe from Mich Turner's great book 'Have your cake and eat it'. Adapted very slightly.
*Freeze-dried raspberry powder is quite widely available in shops and online, as are freeze-dried raspberries. I use the latter - I blitz them to a powder the push through a sieve. As an alternative, use plain buttercream or flavour it with a couple of drops of rose water.
**This quantity fills 6 cardboard baking cups, as shown in the picture (6.5 cm in diameter, from Kitchen Craft), or 6 'tulip' paper cases. If using standard paper cases, you will probably get 7 or 8 cakes.
***For the cakes in the photo, I used a 'Russian nozzle' to easily pipe rose shapes. They also look good with a swirl of buttercream piped with a plain or star nozzle.
Update! I have managed to reformat the ingredients into two groups, with the cake sponge ingredients first and the decoration second, but I'm afraid the order of the ingredients in each list is still not as I would like, despite several attempts at re-editing. Apologies if it is confusing.
Please note that I had trouble formatting the recipe, hence the strange order of the list of ingredients, which I have been unable to change.
To avoid confusion, the list for the cakes (which I had labelled but this is not shown) is under the thick line. It should have been in the order that the ingredients are listed in the recipe, ending with pistachios but instead they appear at the top of the list.
The decoration should have come second but is at the top. If I can manage to change in due course, I will.