Pistachio Yumminess

Ever get tired of the same old dessert? The same old flavors? Chocolate or Vanilla? Now I know, there's lots of ways to accent those flavors and make something absolutely delish! But what if you want something just different?

Well there's some flavor combos that I often fall back to - usually it involves a berry or citrus... but I wanted something even more different. Something unique. Something that isn't done all that often that would end up being a nice treat.

Now, this may not be super unique for everyone... but it certainly is for me :) I love pistachios but usually it's me cracking the shell and enjoying the nut and upon occasion the pudding... that's usually as far as it goes with me. Not that other things with pistachios aren't just as good - they're just more rare for me... Like pistachio almond ice cream - absolutely love it, but rarely buy it (if I bought it regularly I could easily go through a carton by myself a week... and it may not last a whole 7 days in all reality). So for me, pistachio stuff is often a treat so when I was racking my brain for a type of cupcakes to make that would be delish and unique - pistachio won. And, not all that surprising, I mixed in a little almond too :)

It's not a super strong pistachio flavor, and the almond is very faint... but together, they are perfect! Not too nutty and not too sweet. These cupcakes capture that light, sweet nutty flavor. And to make it even better, they're fluffy and leave you wanting more. What more could you want in a sweet treat?

Heavenly Pistachio Cupcakes

1           box       yellow cake mix

2           box       pistachio pudding mix (3.4 oz each)

3           large      eggs

1           cup        oil

1 1/2     cup        almond milk (divided)

1           tub         vanilla whipped topping

1           square    white baking chocolate (you don't need the whole thing, but you want it in a block)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and put cupcake liners in your cupcake pan. 

In medium bowl, mix your cake mix and 1 box pudding mix together. Then add in the oil, eggs, and 1 cup of milk. Stir until just combined.

Using an ice cream scoop fill your cupcake liners about 2/3 full. 

Bake for 18 - 23 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with either just a little crumb or none. A few light crumbs are ok and actually preferred.

Remove cupcakes from pan and allow to cool on cookie rack.

To make your frosting, mix your remaining box of pudding mix with the remaining 1/2 cup milk until combined and then fold in your whipped topping.

Put icing in a ziplock and cut off the corner tip and use it as a piping bag. 

Take your white chocolate block and use a grater to make light white chocolate shavings. Using a spoon (because they'll melt if you touch them) cover your icing with white chocolate flakes.

The flakes will melt when you eat the icing and they're so small that you don't even feel them - they just add a little extra sweetness.... and they look pretty :)

Now if you wanted - you could add green food coloring to the cake mix and the icing to make it look more like green pistachio pudding or greener... as they are - they just have a light green tint. You could also add more pudding if you wanted a stronger pistachio flavor, or a little almond extract to have a stronger almond flavor than what's in the almond milk. To me, they didn't need a stronger nut flavor - I'm just saying it'd be easily achievable if that's what you were going for :) 

While unseen in all the photos - just like the pudding has small chunks of pistachio nuts, the cupcakes and icing do too :)

These cupcakes are a wonderful sweet treat that's not too sweet. They're light and fluffy and just melt in your mouth. The kinda cupcake that you could easily get in trouble with because once you eat one you instinctively want to reach for another.... or perhaps that's just me and my love of pistachios :)