You’re probably wondering why this post is even here when we could be ploughing through the Festival of Chocolate. And I’m ashamed to admit my system is slightly plugged up with way too much chocolate. It’s as though I’m inside a bubble, heavy-headed and clogged up with Minstrels, mini eggs, Divine Chocolate, Green & Blacks, etc. So I decided to make something lighter today. Of course the Chocolate Season will resume shortly - there’s definitely more to expect. Trust me to milk this festive season dry.

(and just for this month - stop worrying about that waistline; stop fretting about how much you’ve eaten today; being healthy and staying fit is awesome, but there’s definitely more to life than worrying about it to the point where you forget how good it is to just be. Never forget to celebrate life.)

These cupcakes were a treat to myself to be honest. I’ve been wanting to make something green for a while. The colour green is upligfting. And mint green never fails to put me in a calm, quiet, comforted state. Out of all the perfumes by my bed, the latest Prada scent is my favourite not just for its unique fragrance (which I think matches my personality to a tee) but for its mint green box.

This recipe was taken from 500 Muffins & Cupcakes by Fergal Connolly. I added some vanilla extract to the cupcake batter, altered the sugar requirement and added more rosewater than was called for. My conclusion? It worked. Rosewater is the distillate of rose petals and its used a lot in Europe and Asia. It is often used in cosmetics, medicine and perfumes. In the Renaissance period, rosewater was often used as a remedy for depression. Marzipan was first made with ground almonds, sugar and rosewater. In Singapore, the popular bright pink sweet drink bandung is made with rosewater, milk, sugar and colouring. The lovely French madeleine cakes we know of are usually flavoured with it as well. Turkish delight, a light pink sweet, is also traditionally made with it.

Rosewater has indeed had a long, romantic past and still continues to survive in cooking, confectionary, etc today. I’ve read that it’s pretty easy to make at home as well. You’ll just need a bit of alcohol and water, if I’m not wrong. Anyway, here’s the recipe which yields about 10 regular sized cupcakes. Lovely, flavourful and light.

Rosewater Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing & Pistachios
Ingredients

225g unsalted butter
225g caster sugar (I used 1 cup)
225g self-raising flour (this worked out to be 1,3/4cup)
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp rosewater (I increased this to 1tbs)

For the icing:

200g cream cheese
175g icing sugar
2 tbs rosewater
1/4 cup chopped pistachios

Preheat the oven to 175d Celsius and line your muffin tray with pretty cups!
Cream butter and sugar till smooth. Add the eggs one at a time. I whisk them till nice and bubbly first before adding to the batter. You’d think this batter would be so eggy what with the number of the eggs. To be honest, when it was cooking, it was as though I was making some eggy beast! Tasted great though so no problems there.
Add the rosewater and vanilla, beat. Beat in the flour. Spoon into cups and into the oven for 25min-30min.
Once cooked, remove from oven and let cool.
To make the icing, give the cream cheese a good beating so it’s smooth and shiny. Mix in the rosewater by tbs ensuring that the cream cheese doesn’t separate. Then sift the icing sugar and mix carefully. Taste it - it’s awesome.
When cupcakes are cool, cut off the volcano tops. Put a dollop of icing on it, smooth it out with the back of a spoon and sprinkle with a generous amount of pistachios. Serve.