Pistachio Cupcakes With Ghastly Green Glaze Recipes

Steps:

• In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, pudding mix, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, combine the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients until combined. Fold in chocolate chips. , Fill foil or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 375° for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely. Frost and decorate as desired.

Steps:

• Make the cake: Position a rack in the center of your oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan and line the bottom and long sides with parchment paper, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang.
• Sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda into a mixing bowl. Add the ground pistachios and salt and whisk to combine. Set aside.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the sugar and eggs together on medium speed until the eggs loosen, then slowly stream in the oil until it emulsifies. Continue to beat until the mixture is very light in color and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the avocado, sour cream and zest and beat just until combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Incorporate the flour mixture in three additions, mixing on low speed after each addition just until no bits of dry flour remain.
• Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan and lightly rap the pan on the counter to dislodge any air pockets in the batter. Bake for about 1 hour, until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached. Allow the cake to cool completely in its pan.
• While the cake cools, make the glaze: Sift the confectioners' sugar into a small mixing bowl. Add the lemon zest, ground pistachios and 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice and mix until incorporated. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon lemon juice and mix until the thickness of the glaze is similar to runny honey. If you want a thinner consistency, add additional lemon juice or water 1 teaspoon at a time and whisk until combined.
• Set a wire rack over a parchment-lined baking sheet and turn the cake out onto the rack. Pour the glaze over the top. Decorate the cake with candied lemon zest, edible flowers and toasted pistachios, if desired. Let the glaze set on the cake for 20 minutes before cutting. This cake keeps well in a sealed container at room temperature for 1 week.

Steps:

• Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 36 cups of standard muffin tins with paper liners. Coarsely chop 3/4 cup pistachios, and reserve. In a food processor, grind remaining pistachios to a paste.
• With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter, cream cheese, and pistachio paste until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Gradually add sugar; beat until smooth, scraping sides of bowl as needed. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until each is incorporated, and scraping sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour and salt, beating just until combined. Fold in chopped pistachios by hand.
• Divide batter among lined cups, filling each almost three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely. (Cupcakes can be stored up to 1 day at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.)
• Glaze: In a medium bowl, whisk together confectioners' sugar and milk until smooth and combined. Transfer half to another bowl. For lighter green glaze (base color), add 4 drops Moss Green and 2 drops Brown food coloring to one bowl; stir to combine, adding more of each color as needed to achieve desired shade. For darker green glaze (top color), add 4 drops Juniper Green, 2 drops Royal Blue, and 1 drop Brown food coloring to other bowl; stir and adjust until desired shade is reached. Use immediately.
• To finish, place cupcakes on a wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet. Spoon lighter glaze over each; let set until no longer tacky, 30 to 60 minutes. Drizzle cupcakes with darker glaze, allowing lighter glaze to show around edges; let set before decorating with chocolate frogs and serving.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.
• Blend pistachios with 1/2 cup sugar in a blender until finely ground.
• Sift all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl.
• Beat 1 cup sugar and butter together in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat one egg at a time into the creamy butter mixture, thoroughly integrating each egg before adding the next.
• Stir milk and vanilla extract together in a separate bowl.
• Alternately stir flour mixture and milk mixture in small amounts into the butter mixture beginning and ending with the flour mixture; stir just until it comes together into a batter. Fold the ground pistachios into the batter. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups to about 2/3 full.
• Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 15 to 18 minutes. Cool in the muffin cups for 5 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3 and line a 12-hole muffin tin with cases. Put 85g pistachios into a food processor with about half the sugar, then whizz until very finely chopped. Tip into a large mixing bowl with the remaining sugar, butter, eggs, flour and milk and beat until smooth. Divide between cases, then bake on a low shelf for 22-25 mins until a skewer poked in comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
• For the icing, mix just enough water into the icing sugar to get a very thick but still runny icing - just add 1 tbsp of water at a time. Stir in enough food colouring to give a pretty, pale green colour. If any cakes poke above the top of the cases, trim with a small knife, or scoop out with a teaspoon - being very careful not to release any of the case from the sides of the cake. Put a generous spoonful of icing on each cake and let it gently spread to cover. Chop the remaining pistachios and scatter these over with a pinch of edible glitter. Set, then serve.