Elegant and Simple...does it get any better than that?

After a yummy and successful batch of cupcakes, I was feeling even more inspired. My next mission was to find a fancy cupcake recipe with some sort of infused cake or frosting. I recently baked a pine nut tart with rosemary infused whipped cream and it was to die for! I will have to make it again soon and post pics and the recipe because it is definitely worth making. Anyway, back to my obsession with infusion. I just think it is so darn gourmet, you could make a flip flop sound fancy if you throw in the word "infused". OK, maybe that's a stretch but I think you get the idea.

You must be wondering what on earth I cam eup with. By "you", I of course, mean the visible fans of my blog (*sigh). I'm banking on my own little mantra here: If you bake, they will come. Uh huh.

Anyway, here it is....the moment you've been waiting for (*drum roll fluttering in the background)... Lavender-Blackberry cupcakes with lavender infused frosting. OH. MY. GOD. They were so tasty and so easy. They were almost too pretty to eat!

I did deviate from the recipe a tad. Instead of using fresh lavender (couldn't find any) I went with food-grade dried lavender I was able to find in the bulk spice section at Whole Foods. The recipe does require some planning due to the need for the blackberry curd filling and lavender water needing to cool. I'm a little sleepy and figure I'll let the recipe speak for itself, so if you have any questions that either myself or the recipe do not address, please ask away!

I found the recipe while googling "infused frosting". Here is the website: http://agrrlswrrld.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/lavendar-blackberry-cupcakes/.  This site has several intriguing recipes...check it out!

Without further ado.....here's how they turned out and of course, the recipe follows below.

Lavender-Blackberry Cupcakes with Lavender-Infused Frosting
½ cup evaporated milk
½ cup cold lavender infused water *
2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
Lavender water: basically lavender tea made by pouring boiling water into a large measuring cup with lots of chopped fresh lavender.  Place the “tea” in the refrigerator and allow to cool.  This will be mixed (in equal parts) to the evaporated milk to create lavender-infused milk.  You could just heat milk and add lavender and let it cool, but I find this way much easier, and you can make a lot of lavender water and just store it in a jar without having to worry about shelf life.
Preheat the oven to 325°F.
In a large mixing bowl, add flour, sugar, baking power and butter, and beat on low to combine everything.
Mix ½ cup of evaporated milk with ½ cup of cool lavender water and pour into the flour mixture, and add the eggs.  Beat well until all the ingredients are combined and there are no lumps in the batter.
Scoop batter into lined cupcake pans and bake for 20 – 25 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow the cupcakes to cool on a wire cooling rack.
Blackberry ‘Curd‘
1 cup blackberries, fresh or frozen
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup water
1 small jar blackberry jam
¼ cup cornstarch + ¼ cup cold water
In a medium saucepan over a low heat, bring the blackberries in water to a simmer.  Mash the berries with a fork to break them down.
Add the jar of blackberry jam and mix everything together.  Remove from the heat and strain mixture into a clean bowl (or another saucepan) with a medium strainer, stirring the mixture through the strainer making sure to remove all the seeds.
Discard seeds and any remaining berry pulp.
Combine cornstarch and cold water and set aside.
Place the juice/jam mixture back on the heat, add the lemon juice, and bring to a boil. Whisk in the cornstarch mixture, and remove from heat, continuing to whisk until the mixture begins to thicken.  Set aside and allow to cool.
Filling the cupcakes.
Fill a frosting bag (equipped with a round tip) with the cooled blackberry curd.  Insert the decorating tip deep into the top of the cupcake and squeeze the curd into the centre of the cupcake.  I get more filling in the cupcakes when I swirl the tip around inside the cupcake a bit. Gently pull the tip out as the curd fills the cupcake.  Continue this until you have filled all of the cupcakes.
Lavender frosting
1 cup butter, at room temperature
3 cups icing sugar (plus more depending the on consistency you’re going for)
¼ cup evaporated milk
¼ cup cold lavender infused water *
Purple food colouring
In a large mixing bowl beat together 2 cups of icing sugar and the butter on medium speed.
Slowly add the about half of the milk/water mixture. And beat on high.  Add the remaining cup of icing sugar and mix well.  Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy  – the longer the frosting is beaten, the fluffier and lighter it becomes.  If you want to thin the frosting a bit, add more of the milk; similarly, if you want a thicker frosting, add more icing sugar. It’s up to you!
Pipe or spoon the frosting on to the cupcakes and top with a fresh blackberry, a few sprigs of fresh mint & a little sprig of lavender.

Time for some trashy TV! Yes, I love me some Teen Mom. Watching that show can make just about anyone feel a little bit better about themselves. Well, that and walking into Wal-Mart. I mean, I know that other fairly normal people like myself frequent such a place, but where the hell are they when I venture out!?! The freaks
must wait for me to pull into the parking lot. No?
.