Do you ever sometimes just walk around the supermarket aimlessly – looking for nothing in particular, but seeking some kinda culinary inspo?

I’ve stumbled on so many random, but delicious ingredients by just wandering and scanning the shelves…

One of these random finds is the basis of today’s recipe.

Pistachio butter (or technically: pistachio cream) I discovered it in Costco – it’s smooth, sweet but also savoury, creamy and has a pretty damn good pistachio flavour. It’d be great on toast or as a pancake topping.

But, I have a one-track mind… I immediately think: cake!

I knocked up these beauties – moist and fluffy pistachio cupcakes, topped with lashings of honey whipped mascarpone cream, a generous drizzle of pistachio butter, a sprinkle of ground, toasted nuts and the crowning glory: a piece of sticky, crispy baklava.

So pretty.

So fluffy.

So delicious!

They’re so good – you have to make them ASAP!

Enjoy,

-Kay

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

• 50g pistachio butter
• 75g salted butter
• 220g caster sugar
• 2 medium eggs
• 150g plain flour
• 35g ground pistachios
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 120ml buttermilk
• 1 drop of green food colouring

Frosting

• 600ml double cream
• 50g mascarpone
• 3-4 tbsp runny honey (will depend on how sweet your honey is, taste and adjust as appropriate)

Decor:

• 2 tbsp pistachio butter
• Pistachio baklavas
• 10g ground pistachios

Instructions

Cupcakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 180, line a cupcake baking tray with 12 liners.
2. Cream together pistachio butter, butter and sugar.
3. One by one, add the eggs, mixing well between each addition.
4. Combine the remaining dry ingredients – flour, ground pistachios and baking soda. Mix well.
5. Combine the buttermilk and green food colouring. Mix well.
6. Add half the dry ingredients to the batter, mix until just combined before adding the buttermilk. Mix again till just combined before adding the other half of the dry ingredients.
7. Split the batter equally between the prepared liners and bake for 15-17mins until a cake tester comes out clean.
8. Once done, place on a wire rack to cool.

Frosting

1. Add all the ingredients and whisk until just whipped. Don’t overdo it!

Assembly

1. Pipe cooled cupcakes with the frosting.
2. Drizzle over the pistachio butter.
3. Sprinkle over the ground pistachios.
4. Top with the baklavas and serve.

Notes:

• After you add the flour mix to the cake batter, only mix until combined. Don’t overwork the batter or you’ll have tough cakes.
• Don’t forget this is fresh cream frosting so firstly you don’t want to over-whip. Secondly, you’ll need to keep the cupcakes refrigerated.