Baking Mondays - N is for Nougat Cupcakes

Honey, orange and almond syrup cake topped with nougat cream and chunks of almond nougat.

We had a very clear winner this week, nougat absolutely smashed the nuts (no pun intended) and the neapolitan in the polls, and why wouldn't it? Nougat is delicious - sometimes chewy, sometimes crunchy, full of nuts and always good. But how do you incorporate nougat into a cupcake? Well first of all I thought of the nougat flavours that I particularly like - and I came up with almonds and honey. So of course it was only natural to make a lovely almond and honey syrup cake. Then what do you top said syrup cake with? I decided not to go down the SMBC (swiss meringue buttercream) route this week and instead went for a whipped cream topping instead, with just a taste of almond, orange and honey.

So shall we get started....

Honey and Orange Almond Cupcakes (taken from Chef 2 Chef, I halved the recipe)
Makes 12 cupcakes

1 cup sugar (I used caster sugar)
1 cup almond, ground (110g almond meal)
1 cup plain flour, sifted
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground all spice (I used mixed spice)
4 large eggs
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 tsp orange zest
1/3 cup orange juice
1/2 cup honey
1/6 cup icing sugar
1/8 cup water

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and line a 12-hole muffin tray with cupcake papers.
   
2. Combine the almond meal, flour, cinnamon and mixed spice in a bowl.
3. In a separate bowl mix eggs with sugar until very thick, approximately 10 minutes.
4. Beat in the melted butter and orange zest and then fold in the almond mixture.
5. Divide the batter among the cupcake papers and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
6. To make the syrup combine the orange juice, icing sugar, honey and water in a saucepan and heat until sugar dissolves and the mixture is hot.
7. Once cupcakes are baked spoon over the syrup.
   

Nougat Cream

300ml thickened cream
3 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp orange essence
1/4 tsp almond essence

Beat all ingredients until you reach a piping consistency - don't overbeat the cream!!

Assembling the cupcakes

1. Pipe the nougat cream onto each cupcake.
2. Top each cupcake with some almond nougat. Go crazy - you know you want to!

The ratings?

Me - 9/10, this is cake is lovely - nice and light and I love the spices in the mix - tasty stuff! The cream is good for something different, but I don't think I would use the almond essence again.
Mat - 8/10, cake was dense but still awesome!