As part of our Dine With Us series London based food writer Mizue Kanazawa
shares a delicious recipe for the Mont Blanc cupcakes, a chestnut cake popular throughout Japan with French heritage.
Mont Blanc Cupcakes
6 cupcakes
For the cakes:
75g unsalted butter
75g caster sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons plain yoghurt or milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla paste
1 teaspoon rum
80g plain flour
a pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of bicarbonate of soda
50g peeled and cooked chestnuts
For the syrup:
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 and a half tablespoons hot water
1 teaspoon rum
For the chestnut cream & decoration:
150g chestnut puree
5 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla paste
1 teaspoon rum
75g double cream
6 cooked chestnuts
Preheat the oven to 180℃/160℃ with fan/gas mark 4 before baking.
Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
1. Place the unsalted butter in a bowl, add the caster sugar, and whisk with an electric whisk until light and fluffy.
2. Add the eggs and mix at low speed.
3. Combine the plain yoghurt, vanilla paste and rum with the sifted flour mixture. Mix gently with a spatula.
4. Add the roughly chopped chestnuts and combine together.
5. Divide into 6 cupcake moulds or tins. Bake in a preheated oven for about 17-20 minutes until cooked through and puffed up.
6. Mix together the syrup ingredients. When the cakes are baked, brush with the syrup and leave them on a rack to completely cool.
7. To make the chestnut cream, strain the chestnut paste and mix with the light brown sugar, vanilla paste and rum.
9. In a separate bowl, whip the double cream until peaks form. Add the chestnut paste mix and stir together.
11. Put the cream in a piping bag with a nozzle (size Tumtanm 234). Pipe the cream on the top of each cupcake and decorate with the cooked chestnuts.
Serve and enjoy.
