Last week I blogged about my fantastic goodies which Whynut sent me and how excited I was to receive them.  After trying out the early harvested peeled pistachio kernels I wanted to try out the other products as soon as I could.  My mum, like me adores pistachio nuts and I thought I could incorporate the packet of lightly salted pistachio nuts  I was sent into a cake or cupcakes to celebrate her birthday last weekend.

 Inspiration came in the end from a cupcake book I have and love:   Making Cupcakes With Lola.  There is a recipe in the book for chocolate and pistachio cupcakes.  The cupcake itself has chocolate chips inside it and is topped with a chocolate swirl icing and finished with chopped pistachios.  I didn’t have enough spare chocolate to make the icing as well so the icing became an experiment.  I took a large spoonful of the pistachio paste that was also part of the goodie box and swirled it into some buttercream icing instead.  This tinted the icing the gorgeous pastel green hue that pistachios are.  The cupcakes were then topped with whole pistachio nuts.  I thought these looked pretty as well, the nuts had a beautiful rose pink tint to them which contrasted well with the green.

Here’s how I made the cupcakes:

I must admit I had a giggle when I first opened the tub of pistachio paste.  I was expecting the paste to be a delicate green colour but to my surprise it was a funny dark green colour.  Do you know what it reminded me of?  It reminded me of the colour of meconium stained pooey nappies that newborn babies produce!

Straightaway I got my piping bag and large star nozzle set up, piping a giant swirl on the top of each cupcake.  Before they had a chance to set, I opened the pack of pistachios and sprinkled an equal amount onto each cupcake.

Off we went down to Nottingham to stay with my Mum for a couple of days and I took the cupcakes with us.  We ate one on the Monday afternoon with a cup of tea and we both loved them. Mum kept some back when we had gone home and they were still fresh for her to serve when she had some friends around for afternoon tea. My kids weren’t keen as they don’t like pistachios but Mum and I were tucking in.  To be honest I usually find buttercream on cupcakes a bit sickly but this was fine with the added paste.  I still have some paste left to use so I’m wondering what I can make with it next. Watch this space!

Happy Baking!

Love Sam xx