Let Them Eat Cuppycakes!

Everyone loves celebrating with cake! And Pandas are no exception!!

Panda fans are being treated to adorable images of pandas around the world celebrating their birthdays with inventive and stunning panda cakes. Bamboo, fruit, vegetables and honey are just some of the ingredients in the cakes these fur balls are enjoying.

Birthdays are not the only time for pandas to have cake. In keeping with Chinese tradition, baby pandas don’t receive a name until they are 100 days old. This special event is also celebrated with cake.

I wonder what other important events pandas would like to celebrate and what special cakes they would like?

Anne Belov and the pandas at The Panda Chronicles are well known for their love of cupcakes, or, as they call them, cuppycakes. For the benefit of all pandas and their fans we are studiously, and with no thought or care for our waistlines, devising and taste-testing celebration cuppycakes for our upcoming book The Panda Chronicles Cuppycake Cookbook (favorite recipes from the panda kindergarten).

In honour of panda birthday season the pandas would like to share a very special cuppycake recipe for a very special panda – National Zoo’s Bao Bao aka Princess Pinky aka Leader of the Panda Kindergarten.

Princess Pinky’s Cuppycakes

Some pandas are born Princesses, others learn along the way. Princess Pinky is happy to teach up and coming princesses “The Ways of a Princess”. Their first lesson will be to bake a batch of Princess Pinky’s favorite rose water lemonade cuppycakes with rose water icing and rose water cream, decorate them with plenty of pink princess bling and serve them to her. We’re not sure what the actual lesson is, but it sounds really tasty!

Ingredients
for the rose water cuppycakes
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon (125g) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup superfine granulated (caster) sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
2 tablespoons rose water
1 + 1/2 cups plain flour, sifted
1/2 cup almond meal
3 teaspoons baking powder, sifted
3/4 cup canned lemonade

for the rose water icing
1 + 3/4 cups powdered (icing) sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon rose water
2 tablespoons water
pink food coloring

for the rose water cream
1 cup (300ml) double cream
18oz (500g) mascarpone
4 tablespoons powdered (icing) sugar
4 tablespoons rose water
pink food coloring
pink and princess decorations of choice

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F.
Line a 12-hole muffin pan with 12 paper cases.
In a medium sized bowl, cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until light and fluffy. Add the rose water and beat until combined. Add the flour, almond meal and baking powder and, using a wooden spoon, mix until combined. Add the lemonade and mix until combined.
Using an ice-cream scoop, spoon the batter evenly into paper cases.
Bake for 10 – 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a cuppycake comes out clean. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

While cuppycakes are cooling, mix together the icing sugar, rose water and water in a bowl.  Mix in enough pink food coloring to achieve your desired shade of pink. The icing should be just thick enough to dollop so add more water or powdered sugar if needed to get this consistency. Dollop the icing on top of each cuppycake and spread with clean fingers or a spoon until covered. Leave to set.

Once cuppycakes are iced, make the rose water cream by gently whipping the cream, mascarpone, sugar and rose water together in a medium sized bowl with an electric mixer until combined. Add pink food coloring a small amount at a time until you achieve your desired shade of pink. Whisk on high speed until stiff peaks form. Spoon whipped cream into a piping bag and pipe onto iced cuppycakes.

Decorate with pink and princess decorations as desired.

Notes from the pandas:
“Rose water is very aromatic and can differ in strength between brands. Add a little at a time and keep tasting until you get the amount you desire.” 

“For a gluten free version substitute the plain flour for brown rice flour and add 1/2 a teaspoon of xanthan gum.”

What other cuppycakes have these inventive pandas created?

Stay tuned 🙂