Poppyseed Cupcakes with Poached Apple Roses

I have nothing much to say today other than the fact that I’m cooking and baking summer-like things today, due to a saddening negative-numbers weather forecast for March. You’re a wishful thinker if you’re a Torontonian expecting any kind of spring. We’re still donning our down jackets and mits up here guys.

Make it stop! 

I want nothing more right now than to wake up in the morning and take my cuppa’java out on the balcony to water the plants. Barefoot.

Poppyseed Cupcakes:  yields 8 large

1/4 lb (113 g)            soft butter

3/4 cup                     sugar

2                               eggs

1 tsp                         vanilla

splash                       lemon juice

200 ml                       milk

1+3/4 cup                 all purpose flour

3/4 tsp                      baking soda

3/4 tsp                      baking powder

1/3 cup                     poppyseeds

-Preheat oven to 375F

-Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy.

-Add the wet ingredients and blend until smooth.

-Add the dry ingredients and paddle on low-medium speed until there are no lumps of dry ingredients, but be careful not to overmix.

-Scoop 1/3 cup portions of the batter into regular sized prepared muffin molds and bake until they’re golden around the edges and bounce back when pressed lightly in the center.

-Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before serving. If you’re planning to garnish the cupcakes with poached apples roses: once the cakes are cooled to room temperature- scoop a small divot of cake out of each top to help hold the slices of apple in place. You can also pipe a little bit of your favorite icing or frosting inside before sticking the roses in.

Poached Apple Roses:

-Bring 4 cups of water and 1 cup of sugar to a simmer, add a sliced fresh beet or food coloring of your choice with a generous splash of lemon juice and reduce heat to low.

-Peel 2 large apples. Slice them vertically in half, remove the cores, and then lay each half on it’s flat side and slice into thin crescent shaped pieces.

-Place the apples in the low heat poaching liquid until they’re soft and pliable. At this point remove them from the liquid with a slotted spoon and refrigerate until cooled.

-Take a small slice of apple and curl it onto itself, and then being wrapping additional pieces around it to form roses.

-Build each apple rose in the palm of your hand for best results, it will help hold the shape together and then you can easily place it in the divot of each cupcake!