Mini Champagne Iced Pistachio + Raspberry Cupcakes
It’s amazing how much fun you can have with people you’ve known for literally barely more than 24 hours, just because they’re the right people, in the right place, at the right time. All brought together because of the love they have for two people. And a good party. And an incredible buffet dessert bar… Point is, if there's Champagne in the icing, you know it's a party.
I’d always wanted to bake with pistachio. Just so happened we had some on hand… Pistachio and raspberry are a classic combo, one I'd never actually tried. And as these were to be served at a rather special occasion, why not throw some Champagne into the icing. A little googling, and thanks to the help of BBC Good Food, ta – da. Mini Pistachio and Raspberry Cupcakes. And because everything sounds better when it has Champagne in it...
This is it, the last of the mini-cake wedding series. For now... I was honoured to have been asked, and I'd do it again any day. All this to say, this past week was perfect for fueling new recipe inspiration, flavour experimentation, preparing for a crowd, and most importantly just living in the most perfect moment.
Mini Champagne Iced Pistachio and Raspberry Cupcakes
nibs etc. recipe adapted from BBC Good Food. Makes about 24 mini.
Ingredients:
1 Egg
70 g / 1/3 cup White Caster Sugar
70 g Unsalted Butter
2 tbsp Buttermilk (1 tbsp lemon juice for every cup/12 tbsp milk)
88 g / 1/2 + 1/8 cup All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt
25 g / 1/4 cup Unsalted Pistachios
70 g Frozen Raspberries (not thawed)
1/2 cup Icing Sugar
1/8 cup Champagne (/sparkling wine)
Method:
Preheat your oven to 375F/180*C/170*C Fan. Line your cupcake tins (unless using silicon moulds, or non stick (though I’d still recommend to butter and flour these) mini muffin tins).
Shell your pistachios and place into a small hand blender/mixer – grind until a paste is formed, pausing every now and then to push down and incorporate the sides to ensure even grinding. Set aside.
With a hand or electric whisk, mix together the eggs, sugar and butter until thoroughly combined and starting to fluff. Add in the buttermilk, and mix until incorporated.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the wet ingredients, mixing until just combined.
Add the pistachio paste and stir until fully distributed throughout the batter.
Finally, carefully and gently fold through the frozen raspberries, taking care not to break them. Fill the moulds about ½- ¾ with 1 raspberry per mould and enough batter to cover (sounds complicated but the frozen raspberries should have remained cold and hard, thus easy to scoop and fill). Bake for 15-20 minutes, rotating half way through. They are baked when a toothpick comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool 15 mins or so in the moulds, before removing and allowing to cool completely on a wire rack.
For the icing, slowly add 1/8 cup Champagne to the sifted icing sugar, until your desired consistency is reached (I added just less than 1/8 cup). Pour into a piping bag, and go crazy (there just so happened to be a hashtag associated with this wedding…hence…hashtag icing…). Just mind it doesn’t spill out the top of the piping bag! As it may or may not have done for me… Plate and serve.
Consume:
With a glass of Rosé and or, Champagne.
As with the mini Orange and Olive Oil cakes, a bowl of fruit, or, more cake!
