An Asian Spin

After being in Vietnam I deperately wanted to make some cupcakes that were even a tiny bit Asian...which is kind of a big ask, as they don't do cupcakes at all, and even cakes or muffins are not done well - everything's spongy and bland, with maybe a hint of lemon or coconut. The closest thing to cupcakes was donuts - for their interesting toppings and funky icing designs. But even then, you get a dry donut underneath not a moist delicious cupcake.

Anyway, much googling ensued, and the most popular "Asian" cupcake I could find was a cherry blossom design, which is very Japanese, not Vietnamese, but close enough! In Nigella Lawson's "How to be a Domestic Goddess", there are several cupcake recipes, so I thought I'd try my hand at chocolate-cherry cupcakes. The promise of melting chocolate to add to the batter was certainly tempting me.

The only ingredient not usually in my pantry was the cherry jam, which was expensive and delicious, so I begrudged using it all. I ended up substituting some plum jam and adding some chopped glace cherries to keep up the cherry-ness.

For the icing, I started with a swirl of plain vanilla icing.

Then I piped chocolate icing, a few lines on each cake, to look like branches.
The final step was to add delicate little pink blossom's, some ended up quite messy, but I decided that I rather liked the messy look rather than perfect identical little flowers. Since when are all the flowers on a tree the same anyway?

As I've done many times, I tested the taste and icing design on my only-too-willing homegroup, who were all satisfied, and the girls, especially, loved the pretty blossom design.

Bon Appetit!