Popcorn Chive Blossom Cupcakes

Bake the Book

Emma Kobolakis

[Photograph: Miana Jun]

Buttery and sweet with notes of toasted corn, these Cooking with Flowers cupcakes are topped with cream cheese frosting and chive blossoms.

Ingredients

1.

Soak popcorn in milk for about 2 hours. (If you want to leave it longer, refrigerate it, but bring it back to room temperature before you use it.)
2.

Strain popcorn through a fine-mesh strainer, pressing the soggy popcorn to get all the good stuff out. Discard the solids.
3.

Preheat oven to 350°F and line a 12-cup cupcake or muffin pan with liners.
4.

Put flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and chive petals in the bowl of a mixer and mix briefly to combine. Add 11/4 cups of the strained popcorn milk and butter to flour mixture and beat for about 2 minutes on medium-low speed.
5.

Drop egg yolks and vanilla into the remaining 3/4 cup strained popcorn milk and mix with a fork to break up yolks. Beat mixture into the batter a bit at a time, pausing occasionally to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl.
6.

Fill the muffin cups two-thirds with batter and slide the pan into the oven. Bake cupcakes for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack.
7.

For the frosting, beat cream cheese, butter, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla with a mixer on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes, or until no lumps remain. Frost each cupcake and top with chive blossom petals, if desired. Serve the same day.