Team meetings here at Chitty's are where we get our heads together and come up with our latest flavour of the month cupcakes.
November's is Maple & Pecan, so it seemed a good idea to see what wisdom Delia has to add to this classic flavour combination that is yet another recipe that is just perfect for the time of year.
Julie is a recent convert to pecan nuts, and now she's discovered her love for them they appear in lots of her bakes! The cake itself is a fairly traditional sponge with a tablespoon of maple syrup (Delia recommends the rather expensive, although worth it, Amber No. 2) and some chopped pecans. This gives the cake itself a nice little crunch. Delia recommends two 7 inch (18cm) sandwich tins, but as 6 inch were to hand at Julie's that's what she used, and it made it a nice deep cake - I have to say it may have looked a bit flat if made in a larger pair of tins.
The filling is a maple syrup flavoured mascarpone which makes the overall cake really light - our flavour of the month cupcakes have maple syrup flavoured buttercream which is also delicious, but there is something fresh about a mascarpone icing that compliments this cake nicely. Julie didn't go to the trouble of caramelising the pecans (I don't blame her!) but Delia makes it sound relatively easy - mixing pecans with yet more maple syrup and popping in the oven for 10 minutes. Pecans are pretty sweet as they are so caramelising them seemed like a bit of a maple syrup overkill - it certainly wasn't necessary.
The cake was absolutely delicious - I may be making this one myself at the end of the month for Thanksgiving (no, I'm not American, but I just love a turkey dinner with creamed corn and candied sweet potato!). Great cake for November, or anytime to be honest. Just a quick note that it really is worth investing in the Amber No. 2 maple syrup, as we have tried making our maple syrup buttercream since with a cheaper version and it ain't quite the same! Delia does know best on this one - it's worth the extra pennies!!
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