This rose and ginger cupcake recipe is your standard cake recipe, with the addition of ginger powder and candied ginger.
About the recipe
It was a gorgeous sunny day with blue skies and puffs of white clouds last week Thursday. On that morning I had already gone on my walk, already spent time in my garden, and already prepared lunch for the family, and still had time on my hands, so I decided to bake.
With such a beautiful day in front of me, a spring inspired cupcake seemed very appealing.
This recipe from marthastewart.com for Rose and Ginger cupcakes on marthastewart.com looked like a light and springy cupcake to try. As my daughter Anjali wisely put it “Mom, you love anything with ginger and roses, I’m not surprised you want to make this one 😀🌹.”
Rose essence and candied ginger a perfect pairing
The rose flavor comes more in the form of the glaze which is flavored with rose water.
I did modify the recipe a lot. I amped up the ginger flavor with more ginger, candied ginger and fresh ginger and even increased the amount of rose essence to give these cupcakes their over the top ginger and rose flavor.
All natural food coloring to the rescue – raspberries
Another modification I made is in the glaze. I didn’t want to use pink gelatin for the coloring so Anjali and I decided to experiment with natural pink colors from what we had in our refrigerator.
As you can expect the go-to natural food color is beets, but we didn’t have that so we experimented with raspberries. We mashed the raspberries and added it to the glaze and it turned the glaze a beautiful pale pink color!
Decorating is half the fun!
Decorate the cupcakes with little miniature roses for a natural looking decoration. It looks pretty gorgeous to me!
Don’t have roses? Use the fresh raspberries and candied ginger and these cupcakes look just as spectacular!
Cake is delicious on its own too
Personally I love this cake just as is without the glaze as the cupcake on is outstanding! It’s soft and fluffy and you get this candied ginger in every bite along with a delicate hint of rose essence.
For sophisticated and delicious cupcakes give this recipe a try!
Rose and Ginger Cupcakes
Makes 24 cupcakes
Rose and Ginger cupcakes on marthastewart.com
with a few modifications
Ingredients For the Cupcakes
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup cake flour
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3 large eggs
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup candied ginger, chopped
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp rose essence or 1 tsp rose water
For the Rose Glaze
- 1/2 cup milk
- 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons rose water. I used 1 tsp rose essence an 1 1/1/2 tsp rose syrup which I had in my pantry.
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners.
- Sift together flours, ground ginger, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
- With a mixer, cream butter and granulated sugar until pale, about 4 minutes.
- Beat in eggs one at a time until incorporated. Add the vanilla and rose essence.
- Then add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with milk, and beginning and ending with flour. Beat until smooth and creamy.
- Stir in candied ginger until evenly distributed.
- Divide batter among 24 liners, filling halfway. Bake until golden and set, about 20 minutes. Transfer tin to rack to cool for 15 minutes. Remove from tin; let cool. Store in an airtight container up to 2 days.
- Make glaze. Whisk milk and confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Add rose water and rose essence. Mash 3 fresh raspberries and add for pale pink color and stir.
- Using a spoon gently pour glaze on cupcakes (about 1 tablespoon each) just until flush with top of liner. Or dip the top of the cupcake in the glaze and let set. Decorate with sugared rose petals or fresh raspberries, fresh roses and candied ginger.
