Lemongrass Butter Cupcakes

My grandfather used to faithfully fly the Malaysian flag outside his house every year when Hari Merdeka (Malaysia's independence day) approached. He was a patriot, my grandfather - having lived through the Japanese and British occupation in Malaysia, he valued the country's independence and was never remiss in reminding himself (and us) how precious freedom is. My grandfather passed away just months short of his 100th birthday and he used to, until the final years of his life when he wasn't too well, correspond via snail mail to the country's first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, who hailed from Kedah, the same northern state as my grandad. He was extremely proud of the fact that the statesman actually replied his letters a couple of times. 

I don't fly the flag outside my house nor on my car (as many of my countryman/women do). But to celebrate Merdeka this year, I decided to eat an array of my favourite Malaysian dishes! Why not? After all, food is one of the many reasons I love living in Malaysia. 

Listing out the food fest I had over the weekend would be embarrassing. Suffice to say I haven't eaten so much in a long while and am thoroughly guilt-ridden now. 

But I do want to highlight these cupcakes I made which were infused with a lemongrass syrup and topped with strawberry and lemongrass compote.

Lemongrass is one of my favourite Malaysian ingredients and though it is used primarily in cooking curries and savoury dishes, it lends a nice flavour to desserts and drinks too.

For the cupcakes, I used a basic butter cake batter that was flavoured with lemon zest and extract.

Once baked, the cakes are then infused with a lemongrass syrup which soaks into the cupcakes making them not only moist but giving them the unmistakable punch of the lemongrass. 

The strawberry compote is also flavoured with lemongrass: I cooked the fresh strawberries in water and some of the lemongrass syrup that I used for the cake. I wasn't sure if strawberries and lemongrass go well together but I am happy to report that they do :)

Lemongrass infused Butter Cupcakes
For the cake
175g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
175g butter, softened
100g caster sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1 lemon, zested and then sliced

For the syrup *
180ml water
200g sugar
3 stalks fresh lemongrass, crushed and cut into pieces
3 slices lemon

For the compote
1 cup strawberries
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup syrup*

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and keep aside.

Rub the lemon zest into the sugar until the lemon is well infused and the sugar is fragrant. Cream the butter and the lemon-flavoured sugar until light and creamy. add the eggs (one at a time) until well incorporated into the butter and then add the lemon extract.

Add the flour mixture in three installments, making sure it is well combined before adding more.

Remove and spoon the batter into the cupcake liners and bake for 18-20 mins or until a tester comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, make the syrup. Put the water to boil and then add the sugar, lemongrass and lemon slices in. Once the mixture boils, turn the heat low and allow to simmer for about 15 mins.

Once the cakes are done, use a toothpick (I didn't have any so I used the small, sharp end of a chopstick) and poke holes all over the surface of the cupcakes. Spoon the syrup carefully over the surface, allowing it to seep into the cupcakes through the holes.

Leave to infuse for 10 mins and the repeat.

To make the compote, hull and cube the strawberries. Add the strawberries, the water and the syrup in a small saucepan and cook, under low heat, until the berries start to soften and the mixture starts to thicken.  Spoon the compote over the cupcakes once they are cool.

Orange Poppyseed Cupcakes

And the orange binge continues. 

These orange poppyseed mini cupcakes are officially my all-time favourite cupcakes and my all-time favourite orange cake too. I make them ALL the time. Anytime anyone asks me for a recipe for a light, delicious cake, I give them this one. It's that good. Trust me. 

I've posted the original recipe for this orange poppyseed cake on this blog before. But that was a long time ago... about two years ago actually and I really feel the time has come for a revisit. The recipe is from Moroccan-born cook Nadine Abensur from her book Enjoy (a review of which is also posted on this blog). 

Abensur's recipe is for a cake but I preferred to make mini cupcakes from the batter this time instead of a whole cake. Mini cupcakes are awesome.  You can just pop the whole thing in your mouth. It's that simple. And this one — with the orange and the poppyseed — literally pops in your mouth.

Pop. There goes another one in my mouth. Pop. And another. 

Abensur's cake isn't sweet. It's delicious but it isn't sweet. But the cake comes with a spiced syrup which is drizzled over the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven. The syrup not only adds the necessary sweetness to the cake, it also keeps the cake nice and moist. And the spice adds another dimension to a basic orange cake. 

Also, the original cake isn't frosted but I topped these mini cupcakes with a light cream cheese frosting which I feel goes well with the cake. Plus, frosting makes a cake looks so festive, right? (Oh ok, I'll come out and admit it. I am also practicing my skills at frosting and I am taking every opportunity I can get to master the art of frosting. Still it does add to the cake!)

Alright. Enough talk already. I hope I have convinced you to make this cake. The recipe follows. 

Orange Poppyseed Cake
(adapted from Nadine Abensur's Enjoy)

For the cake
50g poppy seed
60ml milk
185g butter
200g Castor sugar
2 tbsp orange zest
3 eggs
175g self-raising flour, sifted
50g plain flour, sifted
50g ground almond
100ml orange juice

Soak the poppy seed in the milk for about 10 mins. (The poppy seeds need to absorb moisture from the milk or they may be too hard).

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Cream the butter, zest and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy. Lower the speed of your mixer and add the eggs (one at a time) and mix till incorporated.

Add the flour, orange juice and milk with the poppy seeds — alternating between the three — until everything is combined.

Fill the cupcake liners with batter.

Bake for 15-18 mins or till a toothpick comes out clean.

For the Syrup
3 tbsp Castor sugar
3 tbsp orange juice
1 tbsp orange zest
3 tbsp water
1 star anise

Mix the ingredients in a small saucepan and heat till sugar dissolves and a thick syrup emerges.
Drizzle on the cakes once they're hot out of the oven.

For the Frosting
170g cream cheese
170g butter
11/2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Cream on high speed until light and very fluffy.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Chocolate cake should taste (and look) like chocolate, right? So what about red velvet cake then? What does velvet taste like, anyway? Well, since red velvet cake is essentially a chocolate cake ( a mild one, not a full-on one) that has been treated to come out looking red, you’d expect it to taste just like chocolate cake, right? Well, only kinda. There is the taste of cocoa but honestly, it tastes more like a mix of butter cake and cheese cake with just a hint of chocolate. Does that even make any sense?

One thing is for sure: when executed properly, the texture of a red velvet cake is really velvety — as in soft, smooth and ... well, like velvet. It's easy to dismiss the red velvet cake as being an overrated gimmick.  If it isn't well done, it just tastes like any cake, not a particularly nice cake, only red. But, if its well-made, the red velvet cake is a treat.

Believe me. I am a recent convert. I generally stay away from fads and since the red velvet cake has become a fad in the last few years, I avoided it. Particularly after tasting a few uninspiring versions of the cake. But then I tasted one gorgeous red velvet cake at a friend's party and, well, I changed my mind. I liked it. No, I loved it.

I’ve tried making red velvet cake once before and it tasted fine. No, it tasted a little better than fine. But, you know how it is with cake, right? You make a chocolate cake and the next week, you want to try another recipe that is a little different and this just goes on and on and on. We’re always looking for the perfect cake.... chocolate, butter, cheese, or whatever ... and when we find that perfect cake, we want something that tastes better! Right? It's human nature I guess.

OK. Enough postulating already. Fact is, I made the cake again after I spotted a recipe for it in this month’s issue of Saveur magazine. Actually I wanted to make ALL the cakes featured in the magazine’s focus on the great layer cakes from the South (really decadent cakes from the American south) but most of them required too much work and I wasn’t feeling up to it. The red velvet cake seemed the least complicated —  plus I was seduced by the picture and the recipe, although I wasn’t quite seduced by the whipped cream topping. I much prefer the traditional cream cheese frosting that is synonymous with red velvet cake.

So, here's the deal with this red velvet cake: the important ingredients are cocoa, buttermilk, vinegar and baking powder. The chemical reaction between the four ingredients when combined is what causes the cake to come out red.

Most recipes call for Dutch-processed unsweetened cocoa which is cocoa that has been treated with alkali to nutralise it's natural acidity. This type of cocoa has a reddish hue and when mixed with the vinegar, the red intensifies. I didn't have Dutch-processed cocoa. In fact I don't thin I've ever seen it — so I used regular unsweetened cocoa and, to get a dramatic or brilliant red, I added a little bit of red colouring. Some chefs/cooks prefer more natural colourants and rely on either beets or rhubarb for the colour.

I also didn't have buttermilk at home and I had no intention of buying a carton just for this cake. It's actually pretty easy to make do and create your own buttermilk with just plain milk and vinegar (1 cup milk + 1 tsp vinegar = I cup buttermilk). Because the recipe calls for vinegar, I was a little concerned that the vinegar I added to the milk to make buttermilk would add up to just too much vinegar in this cake. I mean, I didn't want a cake that ended up tasting like a pickle!

No, no ... I was confident it would turn out ok. I would channel positive thoughts and envision a beautiful and delicious cake.



The Saveur recipe turned out fantastic and the extra vinegar had no negative impact on the cake. Velvety? Hell yes! The cake looked rich and it tasted amazing: extremely moist, slightly tangy, rich, deep and helluva satisfying.

Try this. Seriously. Try this.

Oh. This recipe was originally for a two-layered cake but I'm a little mad for cupcakes at the moment and so I just filled the batter into cupcake tins rather than two round cake tins.

Red Velvet Cake
Adapted from Saveur (March 2012)

226g butter, softened
21/2 cups cake/superfine flour
2 tbsp cocoa
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 tsp + 1 tbsp distilled vinegar (separated)
2 tbsp red food colouring
1 tsp vanilla extract
11/2 cups sugar
2 eggs

Heat oven to 180C.

Mix 1 tsp vinegar to the milk and set aside for at least 5 mins.

Sift the flour, baking powder, cocoa and salt and whisk to combine. Set aside.

After letting the milk and vinegar sit for 5 mins, whisk the mixture with the colouring, the remaining vinegar and vanilla extract. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar in a stand mixer (high speed) until light, pale and fluffy. Lower the speed and add the eggs, one at a time, waiting till the eggs are incorporated into the butter each time.

Keeping the speed low, add the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, cocoa) and the liquid (milk, vinegar, colouring and extract) alternating between the two.

Turn the speed to high and beat till smooth for a few seconds.

Fill the cake pans (greased and floured)/cupcake tins with the batter (fill only 3/4 to the brim) and bake for 30 mins (for the cake pans) or 23-25 mins for the cupcakes or till a tester comes out clean.

Remove and let them cool.

Frosting
170g cream cheese, softened
170g butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
11/2 cups icing sugar

Beat butter till creamy. Add cream cheese and cream till well combined. Add sugar and extract and beat till light and fluffy.

Frost as desired.

Eggless Lemon Cupcakes

Lemons remind me of spring.

If you love lemon desserts, this cupcake is for you. Most lemon desserts use the juice and/or the zest f a lemon. This one uses the juice, zest AND the peel. There is lemon in the cake, in the glaze and in the garnish of lemon peel, candied of course. Oh!

There's another thing that's special about this cake: it's eggless AND it can easily be adjusted to be vegan too. 

That this is an eggless cake is relevant to me because many of my family members are vegetarians who unlike me, don't eat eggs. Some are vegan too. As a result, I often can't share my cakes with them which is a darn shame. 

No need for fussy icing. Just a tangy glaze and some candied lemon jewels.

So yeah, there are no eggs, no butter and the milk and heavy cream which I used can be easily substituted with soya bean milk or almond milk if you want it strictly vegan.

There is also no need to whisk or beat; just mix with a wooden spoon.

The only extra mile you have to go is in making the candied peel for the garnish. This isn't difficult but it takes time. But, the garnish is optional of course.

Bright, tart and tangy.

Eggless Lemon Cake

11/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup milk/soya bean milk/almond milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup heavy cream (for vegans, omit this and double the soya milk/almond milk)

2/3 cup sugar (more if you prefer your cake sweet)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tbsp lemon zest

Zest and my brand new grater. Love.

Lemon glaze

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 cup powdered/icing sugar, sifted

Candied lemon peel

Skin from 1 lemon (unzested)

1 cup water

1 cup + 2 tbsp sugar

Add the apple cider to the milk and let the mixture sit for 5 mins. 

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

In another large bowl, mix the oil, milk, cream, vanilla, zest, lemon juice and mix till incorporated. 

Add the flour mixture to the batter in three batches and mix till smooth. 

Line a cupcake tin with liners and spoon the batter to fill 3/4 of the liners. Bake for 15-20 mins or till a tester comes out clean.

To make the glaze, simply mix the powdered sugar with the lemon juice till smooth. Once the cakes come out of the oven, let them cool a little before you pour the glaze over. Simply drop one spoonful of the glaze over the centre of each cupcake and watch it spread.

Candied peel. 

To make the candied peel, cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice out. Using a sharp knife, carefully scrape out the flesh, leaving the white pith inside the skin. Cut the skin into thin strips.

Put a pan of water to boil and add the strips. When the water comes to a boil, drain the skin and repeat the process twice more.

Drain once more. 

Mix one cup water and one cup sugar in a pot and put to boil. Once the sugar dissolves and the syrup comes to a boil, add the skins in. Let the strips cook in the syrup until soft and transparent, about 20 mins. Remove and roll in the remaining 2 tbsp sugar. 

Place the sugared strips on a baking sheet and leave over night to dry or bake in an oven (100F) for about an hour (keeping an eye on them midway and three-quarter way through to make sure they don't burn). 

Garnish. 

Carrot Ginger Cupcakes

This was my first time playing with Marzipan. Yes, playing. Shaping the soft almond paste into tiny little carrots was fun (even though some of my carrots looked like chillies!). So there you have it, the real reason I made these Carrot and Ginger cupcakes, courtesy of Miss Martha Stewart, was because it gave me an excuse to make the tiny carrot garnish: Martha's were a lot more 'real' as she dunked them briefly in a bowl of chocolate cookie crumbs to give them the gritty texture and look of real carrots, fresh from the soil. 

But, as great as an idea that was, I wasn't too keen on adding soil on these beauties, even if the soil was really cookies. Delicious cookies. Nah. I thought it a better idea to eat the cookies while I shaped the marzipan.

Marzipan can be bought in cake supply stores or your regular grocer. It comes in a 500g packet and is unchilled (but once you open the pack, it's best to keep it in the refrigerator. It can keep for up to a month).

The paste has to be kneaded slightly to make it pliable enough to be shaped (like play-doh); add the colour while kneading so it's evenly spread. I didn't have orange food colouring so I mixed a drop of red into the yellow colouring. And a small batch of green for the leaves. Once the colour has been added, pinch bits of the marzipan and roll into balls and then shape into carrots. Score the carrots with a knife if you want to replicate the slight cuts that appear on the carrot.

Martha's carrot cupcake recipe has more or less all the ingredients you'd find in any carrot cake recipe: grated fresh carrots, flour, sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

And then, there's that other ingredient she slips in: grated ginger. Fresh ginger, thank you very much. Not the crystallised pieces I often dump in cakes. Nope, grated FRESH ginger.

The addition of fresh ginger into the cake batter gives the cake a very welcome zing which I really liked.

A note on ginger: I usually buy more ginger than I use and so I store them for up to five or six months in my freezer. Just cut the ginger into 3cm pieces (that's about the amount I use each time), skin them and freeze them. This recipe calls for just 1 tablespoon of grated ginger so I took out just one piece and grated it while frozen — it's actually easier to grate ginger when it's fresh!

And then there are the nuts. I usually use walnuts but Martha uses pecans. A cupful of pecans. I only had about a handful of pecans at home — not even close to 1/4 cup and so I added to the meagre portion the only other kind of nut I had: pistachios. Sightly roasted and chopped. 

The topping is your regular cream cheese topping (butter, cream cheese and icing sugar). Martha adds some grated orange zest into hers but I substituted this with lemon zest as that was all I had. You can also add finely grated ginger (again fresh) as well though just a tiny bit.

If you're not a fan of cream cheese topping (or any topping), the cakes are delicious enough to be eaten naked, fresh from the oven. But, forgoing the frosting would mean forgoing the cute carrots on top! What a shame that would be!

Martha Stewart's Carrot and Ginger Cupcakes
(My substitutions are in red)

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups sugar (I used 1.5 cups)
1 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
450g carrots, finely grated
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup roasted and chopped pecan halves (I used pistachios and pecans)

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line your cupcake trays with liners.
Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
Whisk the eggs, oil, sugar, carrots and vanilla till incorporated. Fold in the flour in batches. Add the nuts.
Fill the cupcake liners with batter (3/4 full). Bake for 20-23 mins or till a tester comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting (You can get Martha's recipe for Orange-Ginger Frosting here)
60g butter, unsalted, at room temperature
250g cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup icing sugar

Beat the butter in a mixer till fluffy. Add the cream cheese and beat till pale and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for another 3-5 mins. Chill for about 15 mins.

Rainbow Cupcakes

I know what you're thinking. This looks nothing like a rainbow cupcake! Well, you're right. But beneath the white and yellow butter cream frosting is a burst of colour that's so absolutely vibrant, you're gonna need to prepare yourself.

You ready? You sure? 

Well, alright now. No reason to dally. 

I present to you ...<grab your shades> ...  the brightest batch of cupcakes I've ever seen. 

Woah. Inspired by the famous rainbow cakes, these cupcakes are a festival of colour just exploding everywhere. 

The best part? They taste fantastic. This was a surprise to me. I expected them to taste ok but look fabulous. Turns out, they taste fabulous and look ... well, garishly gorgeous. 

I love em!

So why did I decide ok making a rainbow cupcake? Well, ever since I laid my eyes on Martha Stewart's rainbow cake  on her website, I've been itching to make it. Martha's cake comprises six (yeah, she's one colour short but who cares, right?) layers of colour layered and topped with a lemon meringue butter cream topping. It really is a beautiful cake. I have to post you a picture.

Martha Stewart's Rainbow Cake

See? Perfect! As much as I loved looking at it though, I didn't quite fancy the idea of making a 6-layer cake much less storing it in my fridge. I find any more than two layers in a cake too much to handle. So instead, I figured I'd make a cupcake version of the gorgeous cake.

Now Martha divides her batter into six portions, colours them and then bakes each coloured layer separately before assembling the cake. Good idea but impossible to execute in a cupcake.

So what I did was pour one layer of coloured batter (I only had five colours) upon another. The layers naturally bled into each other a little and so I didn't achieve the layered effect. What I ended up with was a burst of colours melding into each other.

I like it. I do. OK, now onto the recipe. And really, the cake tastes good. Soft, moist, buttery. Yum!

Rainbow (almost) Cupcakes

(Not Martha's Recipe)

For the cake

1 cup all purpose flour

11/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup butter milk (or milk + 1tsp vinegar)

1 tsp vanilla extract

colouring: blue, yellow, red, green, etc

For Butter cream frosting

60g butter, softened

3 tbsp milk

2 cups icing sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a cupcake tray with cupcake liner and grease them lightly with some butter. 

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

Whisk together the butter, buttermilk, sugar, eggs and vanilla till well Incorporated. Stir in and mix the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Mix only till well incorporated. No lumps.

Divide the batter into five bowls and colour them respectively to your liking. Note: you can mix blue and red to get purple, etc. 

Start with one colour. Fill a heaped teaspoonful of batter into each cupcake liner. The portion should be just right for 10 cupcakes. Repeat with the other colours. NOTE: Do not spread the batter with your spoon. Once you drop the second colour onto the first (right in the middle), the bottom layer will spread out to fill the cupcake liner by itself. 

Magic? No! Science, yeah I guess.

Repeat till the last colour has been added. 

Bake for 15 mins or until a tester comes out clean.

Meanwhile, prepare the frosting.

Beat the butter, sugar, milk and extract together until pale and fluffy, about 5 mins. Remove and chill frosting for at least 30 mins.

When they cakes are ready, remove them and cool them on a rack. Once they're COMPLETELY cook, remove the frosting (if it has hardened, whisk it with a fork a little) and start frosting!

Enjoy!

Chocolate Cake with Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting

Do you have a favourite chocolate cake? I don't. Well, not particularly. I like chocolate cakes that are really, really chocolaty and very, very moist. As long as these two requirements are met, I'm not fussy. 

And usually, I like my chocolate cake with a purely chocolate ganache or frosting. Nothing fancy. Nothing too experimental. But, when I came across a recipe for a Nutella Cream frosting, I was tempted. I was even tempted to add Nutella inside my cupcakes but I chickened out at the last minute and added chocolate chunks inside instead. 

See how dark the cake is? Rich! Chocolaty! Moist! Yay.

The method for making this cake is real simple — it's a one-bowl cake that's perfect for slacker Sundays. What the heck is a one-bowl cake? It means you simply mix all the ingredients in one bowl at one go (almost) and voila, you're done. No need to cream the butter and sugar first. No need to melt any chocolate. A real time saver with guaranteed results.

That's the cake. The frosting? Just as easy. Also one-bowl ... one mixer bowl, that is. Unless you feel like hand whisking. 

The result? The cake was nice and chocolaty and the frosting? If you like Nutella, you'll love it. Me? I like it but I'd revert to pure chocolate frosting next time. I'm just boring that way.

One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes
3/4 cup cocoa
11/2 cups all purpose flour
11/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp baking powder
11/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cups chunks of chocolate (dark or milky, it's your choice)


Preheat oven to 180C.
Sift flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder and baking soda into a large bowl. Mix in sugar. Add the eggs, water, buttermilk, oil and vanilla and mix till smooth with a wooden spoon. Fold in the chips.
Fill cupcake liners with batter (only 2/3 full) and bake for 20 mins or till cake tester comes out clean.  Cool cakes completely before frosting.


Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting
226g cream cheese
50g softened butter
50g nutella
1/4 cup icing sugar, sifted


Cream the cheese and butter till smooth. Add sugar and nutella and mix until well incorporated.

Pistachio cupcakes

Do you have a problem with nudity? I don't. Well, not when it comes to my cupcakes. I think an unadorned and in fact, un-iced cupcake is just as appealing as a cupcake that's prettied up with all forms of icing and decorative shapes. 

Maybe I'm saying this because I don't have a choice: I suck at decorating cakes.

No, no. I really do like a simple, rustic cupcake. The ones my mother used to make looked like these. I love my mother and I loved her cupcakes. I didn't have my mother in mind when I made these Pistachio Cupcakes but as I watched them bake, I remembered the weekends of my childhood where I used to spend in the kitchen watching her bake. A marble cake, cupcakes, pancakes ... those were some good times. 

So, yeah. Naked cupcakes are fine.

BLAST  FROM THE PAST: Just like the ones my mummy used to make.

Now these Pistachio beauties are courtesy of Martha Stewart, the one and only. The cupcakes are not merely flavoured with pistachios, they're full of them. Inside and out. That's why their so precious. And delicious. And green. Well, greenish.

 Err...you don't have a problem with green cupcakes, right? 

Good Old Fashioned Pistachio Cupcakes

(Makes 12 cupcakes)

1 cup whole unsalted pistachios + 1/4 cup slivered (also unsalted) ones for garnish

11/4 cup Castor sugar

1 tsp salt

113g unsalted butter, softened

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 eggs

1 cup all purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line your cupcake tray with liners. 

Grind the whole pistachios, sugar and salt till they resemble fine breadcrumbs. 

Add the butter, vanilla and eggs and mix till smooth. 

Stir in the flour. 

Divide the batter into the cupcake cups, pour only till the cups are half-filled.

Garnish with the slivered pistachios.

Bake for about 25 mins or till they are firm and start to pull away from the liners.

Remove from the oven and let them cool. 

Resist the temptation to ice these babies because really, they taste better au natural.

Icing on the cake

I think I'm about ten years behind the times.

The world went crazy for cupcakes about a decade ago after Carrie (Bradshaw, of course) and her middle-aged friends from Sex in the City made cupcakes from New York's Magnolia Bakery look like the best indulgence one could ever have.

Today, I made cupcakes. It wasn't my first time; it was my third. Ever. Not for any particular reason, really. I just always preferred to make one whole hearty cake than many small, dainty ones.

You see, I'm not at all dainty. Some people call me a giant and I call myself clumsy. Now you understand, right?

So anyways.

The real star of this post is not the cupcake; it's the icing. When I saw a recipe for mascarpone-cream cheese frosting, I was floored ... slipped on my own drool and went tumbling to the floor. Ha!

I am kidding, of course... but dang, the frosting sounded divine.

Now mascarpone cheese is very pricey. Usually, the price of a 250g tub of mascarpone is about RM23. Last week however, I spotted a 250g tub for just RM11.50. Still expensive but, heck, it was a steal and I just had to buy it, even though I hadn't a recipe for it in mind. Yet.

Now if ever there was a "luxury cheese" it would be mascarpone. Italian, of course, mascarpone is cow's milk cheese that has a milk fat content of about 60 to 75%. It's buttery, creamy and very rich. Have a spoonful and I guarantee you will find it literally coats your mouth.

You most commonly find mascarpone in Tiramisu but honestly, many Italian recipes incorporate mascarpone to give a richer, creamier flavour. You can find it in risotto to lasagna and of course, cannollis. Some even add a small spoonful into their hot cocoa.

So I decided to use it in this icing. I love cream cheese icing too. But cream cheese is a little dense. Adding some mascarpone and sour cream (optional) makes the icing a lot creamier but also a lot lighter. It also made it a lot richer. (Oh! my hips!).IT isn't overwhelmingly sweet as you want the flavour cheese to stand out and not the sweetness of the sugar!

Here's the recipe for the frosting: The original cake for this icing was a brown butter cupcake but I decided to go with a simple lemon cupcake simply because I love lemons. I haven't included the recipe for the cake and  I suggest you make your cake of choice.

Mascarpone-Cream Cheese Frosting
(enuogh frosting  for 12 cupcakes).

250 gm mascarpone cheese, room temperature

1 cup sour cream (optional)

125gm cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted

Beat the mascarpone cheese and cream cheese (make sure they're at room temp) into the bowl of your  electric mixer (medium speed) till smooth. Add in the icing sugar.
Add the sour cream and beat until everything is well incorporated, just a minute or so. You will see  soft peaks beginning to appear and that's just the right time to turn the mixer off.

Transfer the frosting into a piping bag and  pipe on top of cupcakes or use an spatula to slather the  frosting on your cupcakes.