walnut orange butterfly cupcakes

This walnut orange butterfly cupcake is inspired by Susanna Tee's Cupcakes book. However, I merged two recipes from the book that caught my fancy to come up with this amalgam - viz., moist walnut cupcake and lemon butterfly cupcake.

I rarely follow any recipe closely (tut-tut, indeed!), but I draw a lot of inspiration from interesting recipes and, usually, I look at recipes as a guideline/technique which I can adapt: I didn't have lemon handy, but had quite a few oranges, plus, we usually have a bag of walnuts in the freezer to throw in salads and such, and so, when I had the compelling urge to try another recipe from the book, I decided to work with what I have handy and this hybrid turned out quite tasty :)

Ingredients
3/4 cup walnuts
4 Tbsp softened butter
½ cup sugar
3 Tbsp orange zest (or lemon zest)
2 eggs
½ cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder

for the frosting:
4 Tbsp butter softened
1/2 cup powdered/confectioners' sugar
3 Tbsp orange (or lemon) zest
1 tsp orange (or lemon) juice

Preparation

heat the oven to 375°F ; place about 12 paper baking cases in a regular muffin pan, or, just spray a mini muffin pan with some baking spray, or a combination of both - I made a few regular size and the rest mini size

pulse the walnut in food processor to break it down to a fine powder, but not overgrind as it will get oily

combine the walnut, flour, sugar, baking powder, butter, eggs, orange zest and blend into a smooth batter using a hand whisk or food processor

spoon the batter into the muffin pan and bake for about 20 minutes until well-risen and golden brown, cooked through on the inside; then, allow to cool a little on the wire rack before frosting

frosting: beat the butter in a bowl until fluffy; sift in confectioners' sugar, add orange zest and juice and mix well

when cupcakes are cool enough, slice a thin circular layer off the top to make a flat-top cupcake; cut the sliced piece in half, keep handy; spread a layer of frosting on the cupcake and press the the two cut pieces on top at an angle to suggest butterfly wings (or, kitty ears, or horns as D kept teasing me about it)

I love the bright citrus flavor from the orange zest and the nutty walnut flavor.