Delicate, tender, and deliciously flavored with Cardamom, these Cardamom Cupcakes with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting are a perfect little celebration cupcake.

In a single short day, a certain little Korean turns 33. Stumbling into the definite “30’s” stage of the life cycle, I can no longer claim to be “just entering your thirties”. While I am no Lily Aldrin in harping “It’s my birthday!!!”, I do find it lovely to take a quiet moment and be thankful for the proceeding year I am about to discreetly exit. This past year has been one of the most fulfilling and full of many milestones - first house purchased that has transformed into a true home, developing friendships with people all over the world that are connected to me through my autoimmune condition, NMO, developing and honing my budding baking skills and recipe writing skills, figuring out how to improve on using natural light to progress my photography skills, and a multitude of small, everyday milestones.

For someone who feels as though a year of their life was put on pause due to learning to adapt to vision loss and anxiously waiting to see if their body would hit a period of stability and remission from acute attacks from the NMO, I can, with great joy, report that year 32 was much more settled than year 31. I fully expect year 33 to continue the streak of good days, major milestones, and amazing experiences. One of the biggest things that shifted for me this past year was how much more comfortable I became in speaking about my vision loss in the moment to strangers. It is incredibly difficult, for anyone who started out life with something considered normal then inexplicably have it removed from their being, to speak with it freely to others. During the year I was 31, just mentioning I had become legally blind in the flesh had me bursting out into tears no matter how kind the other person was. Learning to use a white cane and literally watching people re-adjust their vocabulary in how they speak to you is infuriating. Having someone come up to me and ask who does my hair for me and not understand when I explain that I do my own hair and makeup was an interesting experience as well. At this point, two full years of vision loss and learning to live and adapt to the changes, I can gauge whether or not someone is genuinely interested enough to learn or if they do not believe I have a Visual Impairment. To transition to a point where I, personally, was not bothered by thoughtless or ignorant interactions is huge. And for that, I wanted to share a spectacular celebration recipe

For me, a little frosting goes a long way, but you can frost them with glorious swirling caps of this rich, delicious Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting.

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I prefer a spectacular cookie to most cake confections. When I was small, my favorite cake in the world was a Pistachio Cake, however as I grew older my tree nut allergy developed and I can no longer consume it. I loved that cake because it was dense and wonderfully flavored with those distinctive nuts, then topped with a Pistachio whipped cream/pudding frosting that was not the stiff, overly sweet frostings that typical grocery store cakes have. With the development of the tree nut allergy, however, chocolate cake tended to be my go-to if I did veer away from my beloved cookies.

But these cupcakes are inspired by the Cardamom Cake from The Vanilla Bean Baking Book, and are so light and deliciously flavored with Cardamom that I couldn’t help but fall in love with them. I am a big fan of buttermilk, so I adjusted the original recipe to accommodate for the subtle tang that comes through in the cake. I am also quite fond of cream cheese in frosting, as there is another subtle tang from the cheese and it gets such a lovely consistency to contrast with the very light cake. There were some trial and errors in calculating the amounts of leavening, but honestly, I love a good challenge in trying to create what I want once I get what I am envisioning stuck in my head.

The warmth of the Cardamom plays beautifully off the tang of the cream cheese and spice of the little nugget of crystalized ginger.

One of the things I found while developing these cupcakes is that the cupcakes rise and puff and dome nicely if you fill the muffin tins 3/4 of the way full, but if you add much more batter than that, they tend to rise then flatten out just a touch rather than dome prettily. The texture is not affected, but this is something I noticed during my test periods. Also, if you noticed from my photos, I tend to use a light hand when frosting cupcakes as that is my preference of cake to frosting ratio. The quantity of frosting I have included or this recipe is actually double the amount I typically make for cupcakes, in case you love frosting and wish to have towering, fluffy caps of frosting adorning your cupcakes. Browning the butter ahead of time and letting it cool in the fridge to re-set the morning of or day before you plan on making the frosting makes this a much simpler process.

The resulting cupcakes have a light, delicate sponge that is rich with the warmth of the Cardamom spice. Spread neatly on top is a Brown Butter Cream Cheese frosting, which is one of the best frostings I have ever eaten. The nuttiness of the brown butter envelops the warmth of the Cardamom spice in the cupcake, and combined with the cream cheese keeps the floral notes of the honey and sweetness of the sugar from being overly sweet. I used a bit of Turbinado Sugar to decorate the tops of the cupcakes, and the grit and crunch of the sugar is a perfect crackle between your teeth after the delicate cake and creaminess o the frosting. Then, if that was not enough, I added just a little piece of candied ginger to the tops of the cupcakes. Candied ginger can be an overwhelming flavor, so I just wanted a hint of it to stay with you as you eat the cupcake.

So as I skip ahead to another year, firmly entrenching myself in my 30’s, I can do so with this amazing little cake that for once, steals the show from my beloved cookies. These Cardamom Cupcakes are the cupcakes that I wish I had known about when we got married, as I would have absolutely served them. And speaking of my wedding, my poor husband has, within a six week period, Valentine’s Day, my birthday, then our Wedding Anniversary. I am definitely pulling these little guys out again in two weeks :). They are THAT good, and I do not often say that about cake

Incredibly unusual, but deliciously fragrant and balanced, these Cardamom Cupcakes with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting are worthy of special events.

Cardamom Cupcakes with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Author: Iris Anna Gohn

Servings: 14-16 Cupcakes

These Cardamom Cupcakes are light and dreamily delicious with the little caps of frosting. Unlike some cupcakes, these little guys are not guilty of becoming overwhelmingly rich and decadent. The bright, zingy flavors in the frosting only accentuate the warmth of the Cardamom used in the cupcake batter itself.

These store well on the counter for up to 3 days, however if you are like me and a bit squeamish about leaving dairy products out for longer than an afternoon feel free to store them in the fridge. Then, once ready to eat them you can either dig in straight from the fridge or let the cupcake come back to room temperature. They do get a tiny bit denserstored in the fridge but are still equally delicious.

Ingredients

For the Cardamom Cupcakes:

2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 1/4 Cup Granulated White Sugar
1/4 Cup Turbinado Sugar (Sugar in the Raw)
3/4 Tsp Baking POWDER
3/4 Tsp Baking SODA
3/4 Tsp Sea Salt
2 Tsp Ground Cardamon
19 oz Salted Butter (2 sticks and 3 Tbsp) cut into 1 inch cubes and softened to room temperature
3 Eggs
2 Egg Yolks
7/8 Cup Buttermilk
1 Tbsp Pure Vanilla Extract

For the Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 Cup (2 Sticks) Browned Butter, cooled to a room temperature solid state (I use Salted Butter)
2 Cups (16 Oz) Cream Cheese
1/4 Tsp Sea Salt
1 Tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 to 2 Tsp Honey
3 1/2 Cups Confectioners Sugar

For Decorating:

Turbinado Sugar (Sugar in the Raw), for Sprinkling
Crystalized Ginger

Directions

For the Cardamom Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fixed with the paddle attachment, add the flour, white sugar, turbinado sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and Cardamom. Slowly whisk together until all ingredients are combined.
Add the cubed butter, one stick at a time, into the dry ingredients on medium low speed. Once it is mostly incorporated, bring the mixer speed up to medium. The flour should be completely incorporated and the mixture should look pretty sandy. This should take roughly 2 to 3 minutes.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, buttermilk, and vanilla.
Turn the mixer speed down to low, then slowly add in the wet ingredients until incorporated. This should take about 2 minutes. Once the batter has mostly come together, turn the mixer speed up to medium high and let the air incorporate into the batter for about 2 to 3 minutes.
Turn off mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, and release the paddle and remove the bowl. Evenly divide the cake batter into the prepared muffin tins, making sure to fill the cups only 3/4 of the way full. I ended up with about 15 cupcakes.
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until the toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean and the top feels firm and springs back gently when touched.
Cool for 5 minutes in the muffin tin, then remove and cool completely on a wire rack. Must cool cupcakes completely before frosting otherwise the frosting will melt off.

For the Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting:

In a medium saucepan, heat the butter over medium heat. It will start foaming at one point, swirl the pot and keep going. It is just the milk fats evaporating. Keep swirling and heating the pan until the butter smells incredibly nutty ad turns a golden brown color. This should take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes depending on how cold your butter was to start with.
Once the butter has browned, pour it into a bowl and cover tightly. Let cool in the fridge (or freezer, just check every 15 minutes to make sure it isn’t freezing solid) until the butter has started to solidify again.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fixed with the paddle attachment, cream together the browned butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy, roughly 4 to 5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula when necessary.
Add the salt, vanilla, honey, and 1 cup of the confectioner’s sugar and mix on low until the sugar is mostly incorporated. Add the remaining Confectioners’ sugar a cup at a time until thoroughly incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then beat on high until the mixture is light and fluffy.

To Decorate:

If piping, fit the tip into the piping bag and use a spatula to scoop 1/3 of the frosting in. Pipe onto cupcakes, then gently sprinkle the turbinado sugar around the edges and garnish with a bit of crystalized ginger. Replenish the frosting in the piping bag as necessary.
If frosting by hand, use a butterknife or offset spatula to frost the cupcakes. Gently sprinkle turbinado sugar around the edges and garnish with a bit of crystalized ginger.