Nádivka - Easter Stuffing Cupcakes

Even though Easter is long gone, there's one thing I miss about it the most. It's the traditional Czech Nádivka, stuffing which you paradoxically don't stuff into anything (though you can) but you eat it on its own. Clearly, it used to be put inside a goose or a chicken, but nowadays we just eat it as a cake. A savoury cake.

This Easter my mum came up with a cupcake version of Nádivka that I fell in love with. It was SO good that the little cupcakes practically disappeared in a while. It is the combination of bacon and rohlíky with the spring herbs that makes you crave more as soon as you finish one. Omnomnomnom. 

I know that rohlíky are pretty much a Czech speciality and anywhere else in the world you have to do with all sorts of boring bread but if you'd like to make your own Nádivka cupcakes, I suggest using a fresh baguette, which would be rohlík's closest substitute, in my opinion.

Carrot Cupcakes

I've been meaning to make a batch of carrot cupcakes for couple months now. The carrot cake is the very first recipe here on my blog, so this might be seen as a sort of back-to-the-roots thing but don't worry, that's not really happening. I suppose the carrot connotates with rabbits which are prominently represented during the Easter mass-marketing and when I was thinking about the Easter baking project, I found myself coming back to the carrot cake often. Eventually, I made jidáše and saved the carrot cupcakes for later.

The thing is that people love food for free, that's one thing I've noticed. Guys and girls at the office like to be treated to something I made and when they don't get something over a long time, they start to complain and nudge me and demand free food. Free desserts. Free cupcakes. And I cave in under the peer pressure and bake something. These carrot cupcakes are partially a product of what I've just described.

Chocolate/Rosewater Muffcakes

During my trip to Vienna, I visited this one cool Indian grocery shop and I came across a bottle of rosewater for an unusually low price. See, in Prague, the only place I could find a bottle of rosewater was Marks & Spencer and it was expensive as hell and there wasn't too much of it. So I didn't have to think for too long and  got it.

Fast forward to this Sunday, I had a hard time deciding what muffins should I bake for the Monday morning. I had cocoa powder and chocolate ready for some hot baking action and then I still had this bottle of rosewater sitting on my shelf, unopened. So after a while I decided to use both, just to try it and see if it works.

Rose Delight cupcakes

I made these cute cupcakes with my friend Vero almost two years ago. I remembered them as I went on a trip down the memory lane and realized I haven't shared the recipe. These are actually one of the first cupcakes I've ever made. We followed a recipe from a book (that I got from Vero) called 200 cupcakes by Joanna Farrow and I confess I haven't really made any changes to the recipe. We actually went to Marks & Spencer and bought some of the less available ingredients like the Turkish delight and rosewater. I gotta say it was definitely worth it!

The cupcakes are lightly sweet, Turkish delight has a unique flavour that might not be to everyone's liking but believe me when I say that it works as a great base for the cupcakes. As for the pomegranate seeds on the top - it looks gorgeous and very professional. While I'm not a big fan of whipped cream on cakes because it seems kinda cheap to me, here it delivers a fluffy, light feeling to the sweet rosy base and carries the seed that are both fun to eat and a treat for the taste buds.

Fruit & Nut Muffcake

I made a batch of these for an afternoon picnic and an interesting discussion arose. What's the difference between a cupcake and a muffin?

In my opinion, look-wise, muffins have a puffed head, cupcakes are flat and so they allow for being topped with forsting, icing, anything. Ingredient-wise, you use milk or at least buttermilk for muffins. Also cupcakes are supposed to be a bit thicker while muffins are fluffier.

Chocolate Raspberry Friands

I was moving from Barcelona back to Prague and I couldn't bake anything and right now it's the middle of the week so I can't bake anyway (I'm on a diet) but since I'm finally home, I decided to post my favourite recipe for a cupcake. Well, it's not exactly a cupcake, it's a friand - an Australian and New Zelandian alternative to French financier, a small cake (according to wiki). This one is really really good, it's as easy as a cupcake but it has no frosting. Instead, you use raspberries to top the surface.

There's one thing about raspberries: they are delicious!

Especially with chocolate.