A Taste of Serenity - Rose Hip Cupcakes

Rose hip cupcakes can be lumped together with other Fall spice cakes.  The willing tasters in my Irish dance class (my latest exercise craze) compared them to carrot cake and gingerbread (interesting since there is no ginger in them).  Although none of my tasters had heard of or tried rose hips before, the cupcakes didn't taste foreign; rather, they were comfortable and homey.  I like to think that has a little to do with where I sourced the main ingredient. 


The key ingredient in my rose hip cupcakes is rose hip syrup which I purchased at the International Rose Test Garden in Portland, Oregon, a magical place where everywhere you look you find a differently-colored rose and the air is filled with a bouquet that no perfume could dream of matching.  If I didn't have a conference to attend, I could have spent all weekend lying in the grass in the middle of it all staring at puffy clouds and inhaling serenity. Although rose hips taste nothing like roses smell (read my rose hip soup post for more information on rose hips), perhaps the calm of the plant found its way into the lovable cupcakes.

I wouldn't call anything covered in buttercream "healthy", but these rose hip cupcakes are not your typical sweet.  The cupcakes have half the fat of my normal cupcakes: they use almond butter instead of oil, they contain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, and the rose hips themselves give the cupcakes a punch of vitamin C.  Give rose hip cupcakes a try for cupcakes that are a change from the ordinary with a familiar feel.

Rose Hip Cupcake Recipe

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Cupcake Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup almond butter
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
• 1/3 cup rose hip syrup (You can purchase rose hip syrup online or make your own rose hip syrup)

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons rose hip syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Cupcake Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
3. Mix in almond butter and butter until fully combined.
4. In a small mixing bowl, mix eggs, yogurt, and vanilla bean paste until until fully combined.
5. Mix egg mixture into the larger bowl.
6. Mix in rose hip syrup until just combined.
7. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.
8. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out dry.

Frosting Directions

1. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, mix butter on high speed for three minutes until light and fluffy.
2. Mix in powdered sugar a little bit at a time until it is all combined.
3. Mix in rose hip syrup and salt.
4. Pipe in a rose shape on top of each cooled cupcake (see below for piping instructions).

How to Pipe a Rose

I don't usually provide piping instructions, but when you are making cupcakes with rose in the title, you have to decorate with a rose!  It's surprisingly easy to pipe roses.  Here's a great video from Steph at 52 Kitchen Adventures where she uses piped roses to decorate a cake.  She makes tons of roses in this video so you should get a good feel for how quickly and simple they are to make on cupcakes or cakes!