IMBB 13: Cupcakey Goodness

This is my first ever IMBB! Yay. I have always managed to have a serious work or social conflict arising when IMBB is on, so I'm very excited about this one. What better topic for a debut IMBB that cupcakes. There are countless things you can do with a cupcake and, probably for most people, countless childhood (or adult) memories of cupcakes....

... Like the Halloween pumpkin cupcakes my mother stayed up all night making for my 2nd grade class because some naughty little girl volunteered in class that she would bring these cupcakes and then didn't tell her mother about it until after supper on the night before the class Halloween party. Of course in those days, supermarkets were not open past 5 or 6 pm and orange food colouring was not exactly a staple in my mother's cupboard. So my gorgeous darling mother made 30 chocolate cupcakes from scratch and iced them the tang-tinted icing tops decorated with jack-o-lantern faces made out of chocolate chips. Then she got up at six in the morning to go to work.

Mum's coming to spend Easter long weekend with us.  I reckon I owe her a (very) belated breakfast in bed.

Cupcakes also caused the first serious argument with my husband over the planning of our wedding. I wanted a tiered cupcake stand, all cute and sweet with pistachio cupcakes and mounds of pale green and white butter cream icing. He wanted cake. He's not called Cakes for nothing. He got the cake. Now, some 2 years later, I'm getting my pistachio cupcakes.

Lastly, cupcakes may have cost me my job and a week from now I will be out on the street. I made the mistake of telling a partner over lunch that I had made these cupcakes but that I had to throw the last ones out because we had eaten an offensive amount and every one of our friends was too busy to take them off our hands.

The partner stared at me, slack-jawed, reached into her handbag, withdrew a pen and sticky note and wrote her home phone number on it saying, "If need be, I will come pick them up next time. Please call, any time, day or night."

I thought I would tease this partner by sending her a digital photo of the cupcakes to which she responded,  " You are cruel beyond belief. I hand you home furnishing shopping tips and you tell me about cupcakes I cannot eat?"

If my ass gets fired next week, I know it's because of these cupcakes.

I adapted the recipe from one I found here. They were divine, although I would probably revert to using my standard Wellseley fudge cupcake recipe and convert it for use with pistachio. I have never found a finer cupcake than a Wellseley one! Don't get me wrong, these were great cupcakes, in fact they had a fantastic and delightfully surprising quality of crunchiness to the tops where the sugar got all caramelized. They reminded me a little of creme brulee! The centres were soft and moist and gorgeous. I just happen to adore my Wellesleys. 

In my opinion, the best part of this recipe is the frosting! I've never made frosting this way, but WOW! it is by far the creamiest and best tasting frosting I have ever had. Because the ratio of the ingredients is roughly one half butter, one half thick chocolate custard, it's light and creamy without being greasy or too-rich tasting. Which may be bad. Because. I. Must. Admit. That the reason I may have had to throw out the remaining cupcakes might have something to do with the fact that I managed to eat the whole 1 and a half cups of left over icing straight from the bowl with a spoon. Which is totally not my fault at all because if it had been normal icing after a few spoonfuls I would have hit my limit because of all the butter, but this icing is so smooth and crreeeaaaamy  without being buttery that I totally didn't notice until I was licking the bottom of the bowl. which.... I clearly need professional help. I will be checking in to the Betty Crocker clinic for detox next week. I recognize that I have a problem.

So will you if you make these cupcakes and this icing. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Cake Ingredients

• 1-3/4  cups high quality cake flour
• 4  teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2  teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4  cup softened butter
• 2  cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-1/2  teaspoons ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground cinnamon
• Pinch fresh ground nutmeg
• 1/2  teaspoon coconut extract
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1  cup buttermilk
• 6   egg whites
• 1-1/2  cups toasted chopped pistachio nuts
• 1 teaspoon Italian orange flavouring (or ¼ teaspoon orange oil mixed with ¾ teaspoon of orange blossom water)

• Icing Ingredients
• 1/2  cup sugar
• 2  tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 6   egg yolks
• 1-1/2  cups milk
• 5 green cardamom pods
• 1 stick cinnamon bark
• 6-ounces bittersweet or semi sweet dark chocolate
• 1-1/2  teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2  teaspoon coconut extract
• 1  cup butter, softened

Directions for Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. grease and line cupcake tins with cupcake papers or squares of baking parchment creased to fit in cups.

2. Sift together flours, spices, baking soda and baking powder. Set aside.

3. Beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until thoroughly mixed. Add the sugar, vanilla and extracts; beat until fluffy. If the mixture is a bit to stiff to achieve fluffiness, ad a few teaspoons of the buttermilk to loosen it up.

4. Alternate adding a third of the flour mixture and then a third of the buttermilk to the butter and sugar mixture, beating on medium speed between each addition, until all the flour and buttermilk has been incorporated.

5. Thoroughly wash and dry beaters. In a chilled metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold beaten egg whites into batter. Fold in the pistachio nuts. Pour batter into prepared pans.

6. Bake in preheated oven for approximately 15 minutes (depending on the size of your cupcakes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the centre of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans and cool thoroughly on wire racks.

For the frosting

7. Combine the sugar, flour and egg yolks in a medium mixing bowl;. Beat mixture with a wire whisk until combined; set aside. Heat the milk, cardamom and cinnamon slowly in a heavy saucepan over medium heat just to boiling. Remove from heat and fish out the pieces of cardamom and cinnamon. Gradually beat hot milk into egg mixture with the wire whisk; return entire mixture to saucepan. Cook over medium heat until bubbly, whisking constantly. Cook 2 minutes more. Remove from heat. Add chocolate , vanilla, and coconut extract. Let stand for 1 minute; stir until smooth. Transfer mixture to a bowl. Cover surface with plastic wrap to prevent skin from forming; cool to room temperature.

8. Beat the softened butter in a medium mixing bowl on medium to high speed until fluffy. Add cooled chocolate mixture, one-fourth at a time, beating on low speed after each addition until combined. Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes.

Comments

[anthony]

Cupcakes, a vale of tears. Tasty though.

[Zarah Maria]

"Hello, my name is Zarah. I'm a frosting-aholic too." You wanna share a room at the Betty Crocker Lyn?! The cupcakes look divine!

[Emily]

i love how half of the cupcake is made up from frosting. now that's my kind of cupcake! if anything, i'm going to have to try that frosting recipe. :)

[lyn]

That is the beauty of the cupcake: the high frosting to cake ratio. Although, after a while I just skipped straight past the cupcake and just ate the frosting by itself. It's positively silky.

[molly]

Wow, those look yumtastic!

You've seen this, right??

http://anonymouslawyer.blogspot.com/

[tanvi]

Its ok, Ive been known to eat icing from the bowl too. When I was a kid, Id eat all my cupcakes from the bottom up, so as to save the frosting for last. This frosting looks delectable. And since it has less butter, it cant be that bad, right? :-)

[McAuliflower]

Yum, I'm loving the chocolate pistachio combo. These are pretty complexly flavored cupcakes!

[Stephanie]

Thanks, Lyn! I'm happy to keep you from job-stress, or wosrse!

Your cakes look fantastic...chocolate and pistacio? Mmm...

[Nic]

Talk about a dire warning - but I'm not put off. I'll take my chances with the frosting!

[Niki]

They look BLOODY good! Actually, I've been looking for a recipe to use up some pistachios I bought at Christmas, which were never used. I've been storing them in the freezer...hmmm...I hope they're still ok. Not cheap, pistachios!