Pistachio Cupcakes
I picked up a bottle of Pistachio flavouring at the Cake International show last year in Birmingham but completely forgot about it until I found it when packing for the move to London. It’s a recipe based on a standard cupcake recipe, just substituting in the pistachio flavouring for vanilla. I wasn’t quite sure how much to use as I didn’t know how strong the flavouring would be.. turns out not enough!
I made a batch of 18 cupcakes and used 1 teaspoon of the flavouring, and to be honest, it probably wasn’t enough. I figured less is more, right? I’m not one for tasting cake mix.. raw eggs and all that.. so it was just guesstimate more than anything. To be honest, it smelt more like almonds than pistachios which was a little disappointing, taste-wise, I can’t say there was an overwhelming pistachio flavour either.
I chopped up some pistachios and put them into the cake mix once I had spooned the mixture into cases, in hopes of bringing out a stronger flavour. I think this helped flavour it a little more, but next time, I might use a food processor to get some finely chopped pistachios which will probably help spread the flavour more so than whole pistachios.
For the frosting, I used a standard buttercream recipe, added 1 teaspoon of pistachio flavouring and coloured it with Kelly Green gel icing from Wilton. Although the flavours weren’t as strong as I hoped, it’s all about trial and error!
