Pistachio cupcakes v. Peanut butter cupcakes

Unfortunately at present when you scan the supermarket shelves for different nut butters you are bombarded by shelf after shelf of the almighty Peanut butter.  A breakfast time staple for many American families since time in memorial.  They have the organic one, with or without sugar or salt, chunky or smooth the list is endless.  If you are lucky you will find in a small corner a row of almond butter and cashew butter. I have yet to come across any pistachio butter.  At least this is the situation in my local Tesco Hypermarket.  Due to the glut of peanut butter there is a direct correlation between the number of peanut butter cupcake recipes on-line.  
I wanted to find out if I could substitute our WhyNut Pistachio paste / Pistachio butter (that has no added salt, sugar, oils, or additives and preservatives of any kind), for the peanut butter.  
My 8 yr old has her first proper science exam this week, and as her mum (Me) is a scientist by trade she is now very familiar with good experimental practises.  Namely, that when conducting an experiment one should only have one variable - the Peanut butter and the pistachio butter.  All other factors (Sugar, flour, milk, eggs, baking time etc will remain the same).

Hypothesis:  Cupcakes made using pistachio paste should be just as tasty as cupcakes made using peanut butter.

Method:  
I'll be using a recipe very carefully developed over time by Kitchen Wench: Perfect peanut butter cupcakes :

Fig.1  Ingredients used

Cupcake Ingredients
150g smooth peanut butter or pistachio paste
2 cups plain / all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 tsp bicarb / baking soda
3 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
120g unsalted butter, at room temperature
150g brown sugar
200g caster sugar




1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Beat the butter, peanut butter or pistachio paste, brown sugar and caster sugar together till creamy, then add your eggs and vanilla and beat again till light and fluffy (about 5 minutes on high speed).
2. Sift the bicarb/baking soda into the flour and set aside, then beat the buttermilk into the creamed butter mixture till smooth.
3. Beat the flour into the mixture at high speed for about 2 minutes to ensure that it’s well-combined, then spoon into your lined cupcake tray. This mixture will double in size, so if you fill it 1/3 full then it will become 2/3 full, and filling them half full will have them rise close to the top.

4.  Bake the cupcakes for 10-15 minutes or till a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. DO NOT allow these to brown on top as this will result in a dry, tougher cupcake.

Fig.2  Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Fig 3.  How I made the Pistachio butter cupcakes

Please note that for the Pistachio cupcakes we used pistachio paste and the chopped pistachios as shown in the above picture were for decoration only.

Results:  Some great looking Pistachio and peanut butter cupcakes

Fig.4  Pistachio butter cupcakes

Fig.5  Peanut butter cupcakes

Fig 6.  All good cupcakes deserve to be frosted.

Pistachio butter frosting was made using 1/3 pistachio paste to 2/3 icing sugar. 

Conclusion: Cupcakes made using pistachio paste are indeed just as tasty as cupcakes made using peanut butter.

                         I love it, love it, love it.
Both the Peanut butter and pistachio paste cupcakes turned out beautifully.  I had to increase the cooking time to about 17-18mins.  Those that I brought out the oven too early did sink.  Which is quite sad when you're staring at a little cupcake.  As Kitchen Wench suggests do not leave them to get too brown, but do prod them with a skewer to check they are done.
The Pistachio frosting is well worth doing and was just something I made up on the spot.  You can adjust the 2 ingredients (pistachio paste and icing sugar) until you get the right consistency.  However the taste of the pistachio really comes through.

Final remarks:

If anyone has a go at these please let me know how they turn out.  And a final thanks to Kitchen Wench.