The cherry trees have been in bloom for a few weeks now. Its simply beautiful. My sister suggested to do a cherry cupcake to celebrate this. And so was born the cherry blossom cupcake!  Since cherries obviously aren’t in season right now, I used bottled, pitted sour cherries. To add a flowery taste I used lavender and rose water. I also added a full cherry in the middle of the cupcake between two scoops of dough. Here is the recipe for 18 cupcakes,

cake:
- 3/4 cup of butter
- 1 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups of flour
- 2 tsp of baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup of cream
- 1/2 cup of milk
- 1 cup of pitted sour cherries (I chopped them up with a bit of the juice from the bottle of cherries in a food processor to get smaller pieces of cherries)
- 1tsp of rose water

method:
- preheat the oven to 350
- beat the butter until it is light and fluffy
- add the sugar and beat thoroughly
- add the eggs one at a time and beat in between each addition, then beat on high for 30 seconds
- sift the flour, baking powder and salt together and combine with the butter/sugar mix
- add the cream and milk and combine until smooth
- add the cherries and rose water
- line a cupcake pan with paper cups
- bake for 20 minutes

icing:
- 2 cups of water
- 2 tbs of lavender
- 3 egg whites
- 140g of sugar
- 1 1/4 cup of butter cut in 1 inch cubes
- 1/2 tsp of rose water

method:
- put the lavender in the water and let sit over night to flavour the water
- reduce the flavoured water on the stove to about 1/4 cup
- strain the lavender syrup to remove the lavender flowers, reserve
- combine the egg whites and sugar in a double boiler
- whisk a little until all the sugar is melted away
- take off the double boiler and beat on high until cooled and turned into a firm meringue, touch the bottom of the bowl to make sure its at least body temperature
- add the butter one cube at a time while beating on a lower speed
- beat on high until you get a nice fluffy texture (it will turn to a cottage cheese kind of texture about half way through, just keep beating)
- add the lavender syrup and rose water

Enjoy :)

Categories: Fruits, other sweet flavors | 3 Comments »