The apple and cardamom went very nicely together in the muffins tastewise, but the fruit pieces should have been a little bit larger, and there was only a faint hint of rose. The buttercream had a clear grassy note from the olive oil, which made the combination taste far more like tearose than damask rose. The acidity from the citric acid granules was very nice, but rather unexpected together with rose.

Overall, not a culinary sensation, but quite tasty and nice to look at if you get some decorative muffin cups. It was very tricky to estimate the right amount of rose taste; the interval between hardly noticeable and overpowering seems to be quite narrow.

Apple and cardamom muffins with rose-lemon buttercream

Approximately 20 small(ish) muffins

• 3 eggs
• 180 g sugar
• 50 g butter 100 ml milk (3 %)
• grated peel of 1 lemon
• 1/2 tsp freshly crushed cardamom
• 180 g all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tbsp baking powder
• Rose infused apples:
• 2 apples (Elstar or Cox Orange if possible)
• approx. 200 ml rose syrup
• 1/2 tsp freshly crushed cardamom
• Rose cream:
• 1/2+1/2 tsp freshly crushed cardamom seeds
• 50 g butter, softened
• 150-175 g sugar
• 2-2 1/2 tsp Marsilio olive oil with rose oil
• 1 ml citric acid

1. Peel and core apples.  Cut in small chunks. Place apple chunks in a small pot, cover 2/3 of the way with rose syrup (or water/red fruit syrup with a little rose water added). Add 1/2 tsp crushed cardamom and simmer (don't boil) on low heat until the apple pieces are soft but not mushy. Drain if necessary. Leave to cool.
2. Melt the butter, add milk and bring (carefully) to a boil. Leave to cool. Beat eggs with sugar until white and fluffy. Mix the milk mixture with half of the grated lemon peel and the egg and sugar mixture.
3. Mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder) and sift them over the egg mixture. Gently fold them together to a smooth batter. Fold in the rose infused apple pieces.
4. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 225 °C until golden brown and puffy.
5. Prepare the rose-lemon buttercream. Beat butter, grated peel of 1/2 lemon, citric acid and rose olive oil with sugar (added in smaller portions) to a soft fluffy cream. If you wish, colour it pink with 1-2 drops of red food colouring. Add more rose olive oil to taste.
6. Leave the muffins to cool. Cut out cores from the muffins with a thin, sharp-edged knife, and fill with rose buttercream (easily done with the help of a plastic bag with a corner cut off).