1. Preheat the oven to 180° C/350° F/gas mark 3. Fill a muffin pan with paper cases.

2. Coarsely grate the nougat and hack the walnuts. Put the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly.

3. Add the buttermilk, oil, brown sugar, vanilla sugar and egg. Whisk with an electric hand mixer. Fold in the walnuts and grated nougat.

4. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases and bake for approx. 35 min. at 180º. Leave the muffins to cool.
For the icing, melt the nougat in a bain-marie. Place the mascarpone in a mixing bowl together with the icing sugar and beat until smooth. Stir in the runny nougat. Fill a piping bag with a star-shaped nozzle with the cream and squirt dabs on the muffins. Decorate with the sugar pearls.