Pistachio Rosewater Cupcakes and a First Birthday celebrations

This post has been due for over a month now. My daughter turned 1 last month and I wanted to share the pictures with you. But September was dedicated to 'A-Z dishes from Andhra' and with the other things that were going on in  couldn't post this earlier. It is better late than never, so here are with some pictures of my little one's first birthday.
Since it was a late Summer birthday I wanted a backyard party. We were lucky to have a perfect day weatherwise. I wanted to have a Minnie Mouse theme -- just because I wanted too :-) Our friend N did all the decorations. Only thing we made (actually it was my idea, but the whole project was done by my husband) was the time-line garland with the pictures of the birthday girl from every month (in the first pic)

Time-Line garland with birthday girl's pics from 1st to 12th month

This was the 'Focus' wall

Minnie Mouse Cupcake Stand

It was a buffet style lunch and I made almost all of the dishes ahead of time. We had toss salad (mixed baby greens with canned corn, cherry tomatoes & cucumbers) with 2 dressings, Quinoa salad with roasted veggies (almost like this one but with Quinoa), Wraps (2 types of filling): veggie & spinach-chickpea. My friend N made her famous veggie Spring rolls -- these are always a hit at every party. Will try to post her recipe soon.

Veggie Wraps, Quinoa salad with roasted veggies & Toss Salad

Veggie Spring Rolls

Then I made Cauliflower-potato curry, jeera rice, raita and store-bought naan. We also had some fresh fruit salad.

Cauliflower-Potato Curry with Jeera Rice 

Fresh Fruit Salad

I made cupcakes 2 types -- Chocolate-Vanilla marble & Pistachio-Rosewater. This one with the candle on it is the chocolate-vanilla cupcake. I couldn't take pictures of the inside since they were all gone in no time.

Birthday Cupcake

My little one eating my hand off to get the Cupcake :-)

Enjoying the party!!!

Coming to the recipe of the day, I made these Rosewater-Pistachio cupcakes for the adults. Recipe is from Vegan Cupcakes take over the world. They were a hit too, rose syrup I added to the frosting gave them a pretty pink look.

Ingredients:

All purpose Flour - 1cup plus 2tbsp
Cornstarch - 2tbsp
Baking Powder - ½tsp
Baking Soda - ½tsp
Salt - ¼tsp
Ground Cardamom - generous pinch
Vanilla Soy Yogurt - ½cup (I used sour cream, even regular yogurt would work)
Soy milk or Rice Milk - 2/3 cup
Canola Oil - 1/3 cup
Sugar - ¾cup plus 2tbsp
Rosewater - 1-2tbsp
Vanilla extract - 1tsp (optional)
Pistachios - 1/3cup, finely chopped (lightly toasted, if desired)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Line muffin pan with 12 cupcake liners.
• In a large mixing bowl, whisk together yogurt, soy milk, oil, sugar, vanilla extract (if using) and rosewater.
• Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, cardamom and salt. Mix until smooth, few small lumps are fine.
• Fold in chopped pistachios.
• Fill liners 3/4s of the way. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting.

Rosewater Glaze:
Ingredients:
Confectioners Sugar - 1¼ - 1½cups, sifted
Butter/ Margarine - 1tbsp
Rosewater - ½tsp
Rose syrup - 1tsp
Soy milk/ Milk - 2-3tsp (optional)

Method:

• With a fork, cream together half of the confectioners sugar and butter/ margarine till mixture resembles fine crumbs.
• Add in soymilk/ milk, rose water and rose syrup and beat in the remaining confectioner's sugar. Mixture should have the consistency of a thick batter with a satiny sheen. Adjust consistency by adding soymilk or confectioner's sugar.

This is my this week's entry to Valli's 'Cooking from the Cookbook Challenge'.

Update December 2013: Sending these cupcakes over to Valli's Cake Mela.