“Nobody can keep on being angry if she looks into the heart of a pansy for a little while.”

– L.M. Montgomery.

Indeed – who could stay in a bad mood when contemplating the beauty of a pansy? Blooming in all sorts of colors from the deepest purple to the most sunshiny of yellows, these spring beauties are a favorite of mine. With the wild version called by such names as heartsease, Johnny-jump-up, love-in-idleness, and kiss-her-in-the-buttery, how can you not be charmed?

Pansies are also a flower with a long history of romantic associations, going back to the Roman god Cupid shooting his arrow and inadvertently hitting a white flower, which then turned purple and gained super love powers. Remember all that romantic mischief in A Midsummer Night’s Dream? You can blame pansy potion.

While I can’t guarantee that the buttercream pansies adorning these chocolate cupcakes will make someone fall in love with you, be prepared – it just might happen, that’s how delicious these cupcakes are.

Tips

I spent a bit of time perfecting this recipe, as chocolate cupcakes have a tendency towards dryness. In almost all my test batches, the flavor was excellent but the texture ranged from too dense to too gummy.

By tweaking the buttermilk here, the flour and cocoa and eggs there, it all came together into the most delicious, moist cupcakes with a beautiful dome and delicious texture.

• Don’t skip the buttermilk. It’s a necessity for moist cupcakes.
• The cayenne pepper adds the tiniest bit of warmth and complexity and flavor.
• Fill the liner cups only halfway – this will avoid muffin tops and trust me, these cupcakes will rise.
• Don’t overmix the batter.

Reality Bakes

As you know by now if you’ve been following me, I’m all about flavor and sometimes get impatient with the frou-frou stuff. That being said, I was thrilled with how these buttercream flowers came out. To pipe the pansies, I used Wilton petal tips 104 and 127, and a small round one for the yellow centers. For guidance, I watched Martha Stewart’s video (about 50 times).

Both the white frosting and the pansies were made with my Swiss meringue buttercream recipe, which I love. That being said, coloring Swiss meringue buttercream with gels is notoriously difficult. I’ll give the steps below, but I think American buttercream might make for sturdier, easier-to-color flowers.

Coloring Swiss Meringue Buttercream with Gels

• Start with this Swiss meringue buttercream recipe.
• After meringue is at the stiff, glossy peak stage but before you add the butter, set aside about 1/4 cup of the meringue and cover with plastic wrap.
• Finish the buttercream by adding butter to the main batch, as well as whatever clear extracts you might be using. Set aside.
• In small ramekins, divide the meringue you’d set aside earlier into one ramekin per color you intend on using. I used three – one for the lavender, one for the purple, and one for the yellow.
• Using a toothpick, add your gel colors to each small bit of meringue in the ramekins and mix well.
• In larger bowls – one per color – mix the emulsified and colored meringue with small batches of the completed white buttercream until color is even throughout.
• Spoon each into a separate piping bag and you’re ready to go. Use the remaining white buttercream as a base layer, or add chocolate or other colors if you desire a different base color than the decorations.