I love cupcakes. Well, fancy fairy cakes. I'm not too keen on all that overly fussy icing malarkey, although it does make them look pretty.
DDIL1 made plain cupcakes last weekend, and I was reading her cupcake cook book. There was a fascinating recipe for "Carrot and Cardamom" cupcakes, which I just had to try. I love cardamom. One of my favourite home-made ice creams is Cardamom IceCream. Cardamom in a cup cake sounded splendid.
So, I followed the recipe. Rather strange, as it used sunflower oil instead of butter, but, hey, what the heck. When I'd finished combining the ingredients, my mixing bowl looked as though it had an orange coloured curry sauce in. It wasn't very appetising, as far as cake mixes go. It only vaguely smelt of cardamom. It only vaguely tasted of cardamom. Maybe I grated the carrot too finely?
I spooned the mixture into the paper cases, and put the tray in the oven.
I'm waiting for them to bake as I type.
I'll report back later.
Later Well, they are out of the oven. They aren't your typical smooth topped cupcakes, these are the "Clint Eastwoods" of cupcakes. Very lived in face.
Haven't tried them yet.
I have made another batch of mixture, this time following the recipe for Rosewater Cupcakes. The butter, which has been out of the fridge since this morning, is still rather hard, so I've tried it with Stork Margarine ("For Cakes") instead. Mixture tastes OK. Doesn't taste as nice as Rosewater smells, IYSWIM.
I'll report back later.
Later Still Well, the Clint Eastwood's tasted okay. Not great, but OK. Certainly better than the mixture promised. They weren't very cardamommy, or carroty for that matter. I think I might try again, but put mixed spice in instead of the ginger, and maybe increase the cardamom content a bit. Or put cardamom in the icing. I'll have a look at a carrot cake recipe and see whether I can come up with something.
The rosewater ones are cooling. Hold on a sec......
...i'm just trying one, as is my DH...
... they taste OK as well, but I can't taste any rosewater. The texture is lovely, and not sickly at all.
I think for my next test, which will be tomorrow now as, frankly, the novelty is wearing off somewhat, I'll try the same rosewater recipe but use butter instead of Stork and see if that makes a difference.
DDIL1 made plain cupcakes last weekend, and I was reading her cupcake cook book. There was a fascinating recipe for "Carrot and Cardamom" cupcakes, which I just had to try. I love cardamom. One of my favourite home-made ice creams is Cardamom IceCream. Cardamom in a cup cake sounded splendid.
So, I followed the recipe. Rather strange, as it used sunflower oil instead of butter, but, hey, what the heck. When I'd finished combining the ingredients, my mixing bowl looked as though it had an orange coloured curry sauce in. It wasn't very appetising, as far as cake mixes go. It only vaguely smelt of cardamom. It only vaguely tasted of cardamom. Maybe I grated the carrot too finely?
I spooned the mixture into the paper cases, and put the tray in the oven.
I'm waiting for them to bake as I type.
I'll report back later.
Later Well, they are out of the oven. They aren't your typical smooth topped cupcakes, these are the "Clint Eastwoods" of cupcakes. Very lived in face.
Haven't tried them yet.
I have made another batch of mixture, this time following the recipe for Rosewater Cupcakes. The butter, which has been out of the fridge since this morning, is still rather hard, so I've tried it with Stork Margarine ("For Cakes") instead. Mixture tastes OK. Doesn't taste as nice as Rosewater smells, IYSWIM.
I'll report back later.
Later Still Well, the Clint Eastwood's tasted okay. Not great, but OK. Certainly better than the mixture promised. They weren't very cardamommy, or carroty for that matter. I think I might try again, but put mixed spice in instead of the ginger, and maybe increase the cardamom content a bit. Or put cardamom in the icing. I'll have a look at a carrot cake recipe and see whether I can come up with something.
The rosewater ones are cooling. Hold on a sec......
...i'm just trying one, as is my DH...
... they taste OK as well, but I can't taste any rosewater. The texture is lovely, and not sickly at all.
I think for my next test, which will be tomorrow now as, frankly, the novelty is wearing off somewhat, I'll try the same rosewater recipe but use butter instead of Stork and see if that makes a difference.
