Chocolate Cupcakes w/- Rosewater Jelly Filling & Chocolate Ganache Topping

Phew, what a mouthful. I should also note that I topped these with a sprinkling of rosewater flavoured sugar crystals but that was just going to turn into some kind of lengthy title nightmare.


The chocolate cupcakes and ganache are from an older post which you can find here so I will just be posting a recipe for the rosewater jelly and sugar crystals. I admit, I've been going a tad rosewater crazy lately but, in my defence it's been sitting in my cupboard for at least 6 months just waiting to be used and once I started I was hooked. Now since no-one had organised any kind of intervention and a google search of "rosewater rehab" resulted in Olivia Newton-John lyrics it looks like I'll just have to kick the habit myself.

Anyway, along with the rosewater I've also had a few sticks of Agar Agar sitting in my pantry looking pretty lonely so I figured why not let the two meet? This resulted in some kind of turkish delight style cupcake which, had they not been so incredibly rich I would have happily eaten the whole batch.

Rosewater Jelly

Ingredients

• 1 bar of Spiral Foods agar agar-product code is 01590 (I bought mine from Flannery's)
  
• 5-6 tbsp icing sugar
• 3 tbsp rosewater
• 3 cups water
• Couple of drops of vegan red food colouring
  

Method

1. Soak bar in 3 cups of water until soft.
2. Boil slowly for 15mins.
3. Add sugar, rosewater and colouring.
4. Place into a tray and chill until firm.

Agar Agar Bar and Rosewater Jelly Cubes

Now, I should point out that this is just the method for the agar agar I used. There are different brands and you can also buy it in powder or flake form from most asian grocers and health food stores. You will need to follow the instructions on the packet and adjust the amount of rosewater and icing sugar used accordingly compared to how much water is used. Just be sure not to buy a pre-flavoured agar agar powder.

To fill you cupcakes you will need to remove a cone shaped section from the centre of your cupcake by cutting a circular shape from the top angling your knife inwards.

Wells Cut Into Cupcakes

Fill your holes with jelly (I didn't keep them in the pretty cube form, you'll have to break it into small chunks) and replace the top of the cupcake. (This is just the top section of each cone you remove from the cupcakes.)

Rosewater Sugar Crystals

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1-2 tbsp rosewater
• 1 tsp margarine

Method

1. Place white sugar and rosewater in a small saucepan over a med-high heat and stir until bubbly.
2. Take off heat and stir in margarine.
3. Pour and spread over a sheet of baking paper and leave for a few minutes until cool enough to touch but not completely solid.
4. Break apart into a crumble.
5. Sprinkle over iced cupcakes.

That's it! Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to eat a big bowl of cereal covered in rosewater!