Maple and Pecan cupcakes

Recipe from abakedcreation

Get some pretty cupcake liners and place them in a patterned order for no particular reason.

Chop up some pecan nuts, then realize that crushing them in a plastic bag would've been easier, quicker and less messy.

Add some maple syrup to cupcake batter and take a big sniff.

Put in more stuff, as well as the pecan nuts, and wonder why the batter looks like a puddle of sick.

Make a cool-ass caramel and pecan card and hold it up in wonder.

Wonder why caramel is so magical.

Like, magic.

Take more pictures because you can't believe it.

Think that it looks like a nut army swimming in beer.

Take a deep breath and try to crack the card evenly.

Tell yourself that you succeeded,

sort of.

Eat some bits of caramel.

(I'm running out of instructions)

...

Stop playing with the caramel and fetch your cupcakes from the oven.

Slab maple buttercream on the cupcakes and stick the caramel and pecan chunks on them.

Feel proud.

Very proud.

Take pictures from all sorts of angles.

MAPLE AND PECAN CUPCAKES

(adapted from abakingcreation)

To make the [12] cupcakes:

Ingredients

60g of pecan nuts
110g unsalted butter, room temperature
40g brown sugar
160 ml pure maple syrup
2 eggs
115g self-raising flour

Instructions

1. Put the pecan nuts in a plastic bag and crush them with your fingers or a rolling pin, but not too finely (see photo above). If you want to look more like a professional and less like an angsty madman, you can use a knife to chop them up.
2. Preheat your oven to 180°C and line your tray with cupcake liners.
3. Using a mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar until smooth.
4. Pour in the maple syrup and mix well.
5. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix until incorporated.
6. Gently fold the sifted self-raising flour into the batter until well incorporated.
7. Fold in the chopped pecans.
8. Use an ice cream scoop to evenly distribute your batter into the liners, filling them about 2/3 full. (I just poured them, it will come up to the right amount for 12 cupcakes if you have functional estimation skills)
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester (i.e. toothpick or a stray fork) comes out clean.
10. Let the cupcakes cool while you make icing and toppings.

To make the caramelized pecan toppings:

Ingredients

60g granulated sugar

12 pecan halves (what you get in packets are already halves)

Instructions

1. Pour the sugar in the middle of a heavy-based saucepan and heat it until it turns a pale golden-brown colour. Do not stir with a spoon, but you can tilt the pan to spread the caramel. Do not let the caramel burn into a dark-brown colour.
2. Spread the pecans on a non-stick pan or a silicon baking mat, and evenly pour the sugar over the pecans immediately after removing it from the heat.
3. Leave it to cool and harden. Once caramel is ready, remove from mat/pan and break into even pieces.

To make Maple syrup buttercream icing:

Ingredients

110g unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups icing sugar

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

Instructions

1. Using a mixer, beat the butter and icing sugar until smooth.
2. Gradually add in maple syrup and continue mixing until it becomes smooth buttercream.

And we put it all together!

If you have a piping bag, you'll have prettier cupcakes. As you can see, this isn't in the recipe's font because I trust you should know what to do with the three components which you've got. But if you have no basic common sense, what you do is you spread/pipe the buttercream on top of the cupcake, (try not to spread them all the way to the edges like I did) and stick the caramelized pecans on top of the icing, as well as remaining caramel bits.

I have reduced the amount of sugar in the cupcake recipe, to play it safe when faced with maple syrup.

These cupcakes are absolutely delicious. The combination of maple and pecan never fails to impress, and the nuts in the cupcake give a delightful crunch to it. It is so much fun to make, especially with the caramelized pecans. I'm definitely doing this again, when I have recovered from my sugar rush.