Greek your "cupcake" :)

I had an idea yesterday that I thought I would experiment with today.  Since the site is about putting a greek touch to your food, as the name implies, I thought well...why not trying to mold a famous greek dessert into a fancy, sort of, cupcake.  Now, I know that a lot of fuss has been made for cupcakes, and I personally like them as well, as I know also that to become an expert in making cupcakes requires lots of practice, especially when it comes to decorating them, but this is not your normal cupcake so bear with me and my experiment :)
My idea came form thinking what kind of dessert we should make and share with people.  We know that when someone thinks of a greek dessert the first thing that come to mind is the baklava.  It is the typical dessert that we, as well as as other mediterranean nations share and we get to fight about who came up with it first...something like who came first the chicken or the egg kinda thing.  So I thought no way...I'm not making baklava!  And then I thought of another dessert that falls under the category of what we call in Greece siropiasta (συροπιαστἀ), which means with added syrup.  Syrup is basically sugar with water boiled to make a syrup that can be thick or thin depending on what you are using it for.  The dessert I thought about translates from greek as walnut pie.  
Walnut pie has the texture of a cake but with the added syrup it become not as fluffy.  In Greece they put the mixture in deep trays, where they add the syrup after it is baked and place it in the fridge to cool down.  Then, they cut it in pieces and serve it by itself or with ice-cream.  It has a profound taste of walnuts that are not fully ground so you get to chew on them when you take a bite, but it also has an aroma from all the spices such as the cloves and cinnamon.  
So, I said, why not make small cupcakes out of the same mixture and garnish it with a sweet yogurt frosting?  Now my problem will be, I'm sure, how I will put the syrup on the cupcakes...But the way I'm thinking about it is not put too much syrup.  It will be different I'm sure but like I said it will not be the traditional walnut pie but a "cupcake".  So I'm thinking I will use a spoon and add the syrup slowly on the top...Let's see of what I will manage to do.  I will share the recipe with photos of course.  I will also post an update of how things turned out.  So...off to the kitchen I go...

Dia, Kostas and Tony


Update:
The cupcakes turned pretty good actually!  As I had predicted, it was difficult adding the syrup so I advise you to leave the cupcakes in the baking tray and add the syrup while they are in there.  This way you won't need to worry about making a syrupy mess everywhere :)  Enjoy!
And as always Kali Oreksi!

Dia, Kostas and Tony

The Greek "cupcake"

Ingredients:

For the cupcake:

• 70g butter
  
• 130g sugar
  
• 80g walnuts 
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 110g breadcrumbs
  
• 110g flour
  
• 160ml milk
  
• 4 tbs cognac
  
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  
• 1/4 tsp cloves
  
• 10g baking powder
  
• 5g bicarbonate of soda
  

For the syrup:

• 200g sugar
  
• 150ml water
  
• 2-3 drops of lemon juice
  

For the frosting:

• 50g sweet condensed milk
  
• 100g greek yogurt
  

for more information on how to make the Greek "Cupcake" please click here