While out on a hike last weekend I was mulling over some ideas for the upcoming weeks of my cupcake project and thought it might be fun to introduce a theme that I could play with over the next little while. 'Se7en' has long been one of my favourite movies and I have always wanted to create something with a 'seven deadly sins' theme which is what I kicked off with this week's creation: 'Envious'. I named the cake using a bit of a play on words, presenting a salted pistachio cupcake, green with envy of the sweet apricot white chocolate frosting that tops it.
Taste: ***1/2 | Presentation: ***1/2
Cupcake
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup pistachios, roughly chopped
4 drops green food colouring
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease/spray pan(s). In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy (~5 mins). Beat in the eggs one at a time. Combine vanilla and milk in a separate dish. In a medium bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the sugar/butter mixture in 3rds alternating with the milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix in the green food colouring until uniform in colour and fold in the pistachios. I baked them for 17 minutes (I would cut this back to 15 in the future). This recipe yielded 12 regular cupcakes. Allow to cool.
Frosting
3/4 stick of butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups icing/confectioner/powder sugar
1/4 cup apricot jam (I would up this to a 1/2 cup next time)
4 oz white chocolate
pinch of salt
Melt the white chocolate and allow it to come to room temperature. Combine 1 cup of sugar with the jam. Mix in the butter and salt. Add and mix in the chocolate.
I spread the frosting over the cupcakes immediately using a knife.
Chop up an extra 1/2 cup of pistachios slightly finer and press the iced cupcakes into the nuts to top.
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup pistachios, roughly chopped
4 drops green food colouring
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease/spray pan(s). In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy (~5 mins). Beat in the eggs one at a time. Combine vanilla and milk in a separate dish. In a medium bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the sugar/butter mixture in 3rds alternating with the milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix in the green food colouring until uniform in colour and fold in the pistachios. I baked them for 17 minutes (I would cut this back to 15 in the future). This recipe yielded 12 regular cupcakes. Allow to cool.
Frosting
3/4 stick of butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups icing/confectioner/powder sugar
1/4 cup apricot jam (I would up this to a 1/2 cup next time)
4 oz white chocolate
pinch of salt
Melt the white chocolate and allow it to come to room temperature. Combine 1 cup of sugar with the jam. Mix in the butter and salt. Add and mix in the chocolate.
I spread the frosting over the cupcakes immediately using a knife.
Chop up an extra 1/2 cup of pistachios slightly finer and press the iced cupcakes into the nuts to top.
The Panel:
Everyone seemed to be in agreement that the flavour of the cupcake was good and worked well with the frosting though the apricot flavour was a little lost. A demand for more nuts in the batter was a common remark and a handful of judges also seemed to crave a slightly saltier cake. Diana recommended possibly introducing fig into the recipe and Peanut suggested using chocolate covered pistachios as a topping. As far as presentation was concerned the colour combination was generally appreciated (the green of the cake especially) though the overal topping lacked appeal. Giovanni was absent the day I handed them out and had to indulge a day later but commented that the cake was still moist.
Diana: 'F'ing amazing!'
Cocoa: 'I love the theme and can't wait for the others.'
Giovanni: 'I wouldn't order this having never tried it [pistachio cake] before but I am now a believer!'
My comments:
I was quite pleased with this cupcake, having been completely confident in it's presentation this week. I would use more apricot jam in the frosting in the future and would consider upping the cupcake pistachio content to 3/4 if not a full cup. I thought it was interesting that Diana suggested fig as I was torn between fig and apricot when originally designing this cupcake but the combination of the two in the frosting might also be a nice touch.
Everyone seemed to be in agreement that the flavour of the cupcake was good and worked well with the frosting though the apricot flavour was a little lost. A demand for more nuts in the batter was a common remark and a handful of judges also seemed to crave a slightly saltier cake. Diana recommended possibly introducing fig into the recipe and Peanut suggested using chocolate covered pistachios as a topping. As far as presentation was concerned the colour combination was generally appreciated (the green of the cake especially) though the overal topping lacked appeal. Giovanni was absent the day I handed them out and had to indulge a day later but commented that the cake was still moist.
Diana: 'F'ing amazing!'
Cocoa: 'I love the theme and can't wait for the others.'
Giovanni: 'I wouldn't order this having never tried it [pistachio cake] before but I am now a believer!'
My comments:
I was quite pleased with this cupcake, having been completely confident in it's presentation this week. I would use more apricot jam in the frosting in the future and would consider upping the cupcake pistachio content to 3/4 if not a full cup. I thought it was interesting that Diana suggested fig as I was torn between fig and apricot when originally designing this cupcake but the combination of the two in the frosting might also be a nice touch.