While I’m visiting my family in Japan, I have asked several blogger friends to blog-sit for me and today’s sitter is Tobias from T and Tea Cake.
Tobias is a food-loving university student from Europe and on his blog, T and Tea Cake, he mainly focuses on European cuisine but sometimes experiments with more exotic food and ingredients that inspire him. Most of his recipes are easy to prepare and budget-friendly.
When reading Tobias’s blog, it’s hard to believe that he’s been blogging for less than a year. Despite his humble attitude toward his work, Tobias’ photography is simply breathtaking and this self-taught home cook and baker make beautiful dishes like Parsnip Dumplings with Scallion & Bacon Filling and Cherry & Red Wine Chocolate Cake. His blog is welcoming even for a beginner cook and he tells you:
“I do not think I am the most skilled cook or baker with too much expertise – so I doubt you will need too much skill either [to try my recipes]. I’m going with the mantra: When I can do it – you can do it! In fact, if there is any skill required for a recipe I believe that it can be acquired by going through it in learning by doing manner.”
Are you inspired? Now please welcome Tobias with these delicious fusion cupcakes.
*****
Hiya avid readers of Just One Cookbook! I feel genuinely honored to be chosen by Nami to write a post on her blog while she is away. I know you are all spoiled by her quality content, so I hope I won’t let you down. She is one of the most ambitious bloggers I know and puts a lot of effort into her blog and recipes. Nami really has got a talent for making Japanese cuisine approachable and never leaves any questions unanswered. She is such a sweetheart and I am happy to call her my blogger friend.
When she invited me to blog-sit for her, I (besides doing the happy dance and immediately saying yes) had to think long and hard about what to share. I wanted something I thought she and her loyal readers may like and that somewhat fits into her repertoire. The result surely isn’t anything Japanese (I’ll leave that to our expert) but more of a fusion food.
She once said she likes roasted sesame seeds (something we have in common and yes, I have no problem remembering the most random things. It’s a gift.) so the idea for this recipe was born. The texture of these cupcakes is wonderfully airy with a crisp outside. It also is a great recipe for using hulled sesame seeds which are a bit more grey-ish but even healthier than there unhulled counterparts. There is nothing that fits better to sesame than honey, so why making the terrible mistake of keeping two things apart that obviously belong together, right?
Making the frosting honestly takes not more than ten minutes. The key is to cook the honey mixture to the point where it starts to brown. This gives enough stability to the frosting.
Anyway, let’s get our baking mojo on!
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Sesame Cupcakes with Honey Meringue Frosting
Ingredients
Sesame Cupcakes
- 2.1 oz toasted white sesame seeds
- 2.1 oz toasted black sesame seeds
- 2.7 fl oz toasted sesame oil (I used sesame oil but other neutral oils like canola or sunflower seed oil work just as well)
- 4 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell)
- 8.1 oz sugar
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 5 Tbsp sweet soy sauce
- ½ Tbsp baking powder
- 8.1 oz cake flour
- toasted black sesame seeds (for decoration)
Honey Meringue Frosting:
- 3 large egg white
- ¼ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 3 fl oz honey
- 3.2 oz sugar
Instructions
Sesame Cupcakes
- In a small pot, roast both white and black sesame seeds on medium heat; stirring continuously (The seeds will start crackling. When you think they are almost roasted enough, remove from heat as they will keep browning with the heat off.)
- In a food processor, combine sesame seeds with oil and puree until smooth (I had to stop and scrape some seeds off the sides of the bowl at one point.) Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C), grease and flour or line cupcake pan. For a convection oven, reduce cooking temperature by 25ºF (15ºC).
- In a large bowl, beat eggs with a hand mixer until fluffy.
- Add sugar, vanilla essence and sweet soy sauce, mix well.
- Beat in sesame paste.
- Stir in baking powder and flour, little by little, until everything is well combined.
- Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each ⅔ full.
- Bake on centre rack for 25 minutes or until a stick comes out clean.
- Remove from pan, let cool on cooling rack.
- Pipe or spread frosting on cupcakes, sprinkle with black sesame seeds.
To Make Honey Meringue Frosting
- In a small pot, boil sugar and honey on medium heat until bubbles emerge and it darkens.
- In the meantime, add salt to egg whites and beat until very stiff with a hand mixer (or kitchen aid, off course) in a heat-proof bowl (when using a hand mixer, you will need a bowl that is rather small but deep).
- While beating continuously, very slowly pour in boiling hot honey-sugar mixture.
- Keep beating until everything is well incorporated.
To Store
- You can keep the cupcakes in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
I SO want one of these right now! I’m not kidding, they look so good. Tobias, your photography is fantastic and your recipe is the bomb.
I can’t wait to try these at home! Always inspiring recipes here, Nami – you even have good taste in guest bloggers! Hope your family time was beautiful!
This is so creative. I would love to try one of your savory cupcakes. So unusual that I want to get out my cupcake pan and make a batch right now. I’m impressed!
Hi Tobias, nice to meet you, sort of speak, love this recipe – mmmm… Your photos look stunning.
I absolutely LOVE the combination of flavors in this cupcake! I <3 sesame seed, and this rocks! And the pictures are beautiful too 🙂 🙂
Indeed apart from excellent baker Tobias is an excellent photographer! Both his cupcakes and photos are fabulous!
Nami – Thanks for introducing Tobias and his blog! 😉
I love the un-usualness of this cupcake and its savory elements. The ingredients have me intrigued and would like to give these a try, for sure!
I have read and re- read the recipe… I thought I was ‘seeing’ things… but it is true what I read… there’s sweet soy sauce in cupcakes… wow this is fascinating!
I am a huge fan of sweet soy sauce(can just enjoy eating white rice with drizzle of sweet soy sauce only)…
Thanks Nami and Tobias for this intriguing n inspiring cupcakes..:)
I love meringue toppings! And I’ll bet it’s awesome on this cup cake. Nice combo of flavors. And I’m glad to learn of T & Tea Cake – a new blog for me. Checking it out right now . . .
How nice to have such wonderful bloggers fill in while you are away. This cupcake looks amazing and sounds like it’s bursting with flavor…so it must taste as good as it looks! 🙂
Hello Nami 🙂 are you back home? Did you have an amazing time in Japan? I’ve been keeping up to date with your updates on facebook and everything looks AMAZING ~
Thanks for introducing us to Tobias! Nice to meet you! This is a very interesting recipe 🙂 I can’t wait to try! Thanks for sharing it with us!
This is something new for me, I never tried sesame in cakes or cupcakes. I think it’s amazing, Nami!
I’ve certainly never seen a cupcake made with such list of ingredient, but it’s so interesting. Very curious about the taste. By the way, how long will this meringue hold?
Hi Gourmantine! 🙂
Well, I have never actually experienced the meringue liquifiying. However, nothing I have made with it has lasted for more than two days after preparing. So I would say it holds for 48 hours at least.
If there is a cup cake for Japanese then this would be it, sesame looks like a real great flavor to use in a baked cake like this.
what a superbly interesting cupcake! thanks, tobias!