Delicately perfect pistachio strawberry brown butter cakes

This is seriously an "OH, WOW!" bake ^^!

That's the first thing I said aloud (really!) when I had that first bite! And very, very few bakes ever get to this level! Especially when it's had fresh from the oven. (^^)

This is originally a pistachio raspberry teacake by pook @ daily delicious, a super talented baker, stylist, photographer - blogger extraordinaire, one of my greatest source of inspiration in the blogging world ^^ Nothing seems to faze her.. and nothing seems to be too much of a trouble to make.. and style.. she's my baking hero!!! (^^)

Here's my slightly modifed version of pook's easy, delicious teacake.. made a little complicated with AWWWesome browned butter ^^

Pistachio strawberry brown butter cake (adapted from daily delicious)

60g unsalted butter
60g unsalted shelled pistachios
50g sugar
a pinch of salt
65g all purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 egg yolks
2 egg whites
40g sugar
90g strawberries, diced
20g pistachios, chopped, for sprinkling

1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Melt butter over MEDIUM heat. Pay attention as the butter's boiling and crackling ~ and continue cooking until it turns clear and golden, and the milk solids have dropped to the bottom of pan. Once you see brown bits at the bottom of pan, remove from heat.. takes about 8 minutes from time butter boils to the brown bits. Leave to cool. Strain through a fine metal sieve or cheesecloth-lined strainer.

3. In a food processor, grind shelled pistachios with 50g sugar and salt till fine.

4. Place pistachio meal into a mixing bowl, and hand-mix in cooled browned butter and flour till combined. DO NOT over-mix.

5. Add vanilla and egg yolks till combined. DO NOT over-beat.

6. In another bowl, beat egg whites with 40g sugar till firm peaks are formed. Then gently mix into pistachio batter till incorporated.

7. Mix in diced strawberries into the mixture. Otherwise, drop the diced strawberries and sprinkle chopped pistachios onto the batter AFTER pouring and filling moulds/cupcake/muffin tins, 3/4 full.

8. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or till the skewer comes out clean.

* makes about 6 cupcakes.. best served warm from oven ^^
** for a quick and easy bake, check out daily delicious's post.. and omit browned butter and egg yolks-whites separation ^^

This is one of the best bakes ever (!!!).. the combo of pistachio and strawberry is truly OUTSTANDING! the outcome, as heavenly as financiers! as moist and fluffy as the best butter cakes! as perfectly sweet and delicate as perfect should be! I know it's hard to believe.. but I really feel that the taste, texture and aroma just comes together so right! that every bite is.. PERFECTION!!!

When you look at pook's pretty pictures ^^ and my amateur ones (^^||), you'll not really think that this is going to be such a FABULOUS bake.. you'll think the colors are really pretty and the idea could be really yummy.. but I assure you, that this is a bake you MUST NOT miss!!!

These cakes are simply AMAZINGly AWWWESOME!!! I swear! (^^)

p.s i think i'm going thru a "brown butter" phase.. hopefully i'll out-grow it soonest ^^ anyways, fatty hubby and piggies are not complaining ^^ these are really, really, really good ~ not exaggerating!