Tuesday, October 5, 2010

pistachio cupcakes for the zoo


On Sunday, we took my little boy Matthew to the zoo for his third birthday.  We were bad parents this year and didn't plan him a real birthday party (other than a little party at his preschool).  So we took him to the zoo instead.

My cousin and some friends and their daughter were going to be joining us, so I wanted to bake some cupcakes for us to snack on at the zoo.  My go-to cupcake is a chocolate cupcake with chocolate cream cheese frosting, but I wanted to try something different this time.  Since pistachio is one of my favorite ice cream flavors, I thought I'd try a pistachio cupcake!

The first batch was bad.  I had decided to try a recipe that used a box of pistachio pudding, but the end result was a dough-y, gummy cupcake that tasted like a cake mix!

The second batch was a Martha Stewart recipe that used real pistachios, but it was heavy and dense and came out more like a muffin.  So I added some baking powder, canola oil, milk, and almond extract, and also decreased the baking temperature and baking time, and out came a nice, moist pistachio cupcake!  Although, it was a tad too sweet and a little bit greasy, so next time maybe I'll try adding more flour.

I topped it with a honey and almond cream-cheese frosting, decorated them with some shelled pistachios, packed them in a cooler fitted with ice packs, and off to the zoo we went!

Happy Birthday, Matthew!  Hope you had fun at the zoo! :)


2 comments:

  1. I cant believe I read all your posts after found your blog by chance. You have nice blog and you make beautiful cakes.

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  2. @Caca - i'm so glad you found my blog! :) thanks for the lovely comments!

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