CILANTRO: It's not just for salsa any more! That's right everyone...the cupcake ingredient of the week is cilantro & you do not want to miss all the action! Be sure to look at my page Tuesday morning to see what happens...I'm going to try reallly hard to make it work :)

~Carolyn

I'm still working on choosing the ingredient for next week...I have a few in mind but I haven't settled on one quite yet...until then I thought I'd post some pictures from my last catering job! I made 100 cake pops for a baby shower a couple months ago...take a look!

 Lemon cake pops with white chocolate coating!

 There's my cake pops on the table at the baby shower! Unfortunately I did not make the cupcakes and the cake but they looked delicious :)

 From left: Tamika, Antoinette and I at Tamika's baby shower.

Thanks for checking these out! I'll be posting next week's ingredient soon!

~Carolyn

Hello folks! :) The ingredient of the week was sparkling pomegranate juice, as I announced earlier! Well we made it through week 1 and I got a pretty good cupcake recipe out of it too! The end result of the experiment was two different cupcakes, one, which far exceeded the other with color, flavor and texture. So let's see what happened!

The Opponent:                                                                                            The Game Plan:

  Find the best way to maintain the flavor of the pomegranate, while also making it work in a cake batter. 

   

What happened:

 I added butter...

 Then flour, salt and baking powder....

 Some egg whites, so it wouldn't be too dry.....





                    Then I mixed it all together....

BUT THEN.......

The batter was divided so that two tests could be done! In test number one, the sparkling juice was added directly to the batter without any preparation done to it...just straight from the bottle. After mixing it in, I added 1/2 cup of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips...because who doesn't love chocolate?

But from the look of the batter...it was lacking the dark purple color that I expected to get from pomegranate juice. But I waited to see what happened after they came out of the oven....AND....

still not purple :( So I had no choice but to move on! I knew it was time to reduce that juice! And that is exactly what I did...

Three cups of sparkling juice soon boiled down to only 1/2 cup...which I added to the batter. Then came 1/2 cup of chocolate chips for this batch too!

So I evenly divided the batter into the cupcake tin and popped it in the oven!

To my delight, this batch turned out just the way I wanted it to!

I whipped up some pomegranate buttercream icing (much easier to do than the cupcake batter), and piped it on top of the cake!

Winning Recipe!

Pomegranate Cupcakes Test #2 (with reduced juice)

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour plus about a tablespoon

3 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup unsalted butter

1 2/3 cups sugar

5 egg whites

2 ½ teaspoons vanilla

½ cup reduced pomegranate sparkling juice **

1.       Heat oven to 350°F. Line 2, 12 cup muffin tins with cupcake liners.

2.       In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

3.       In large bowl, beat butter on medium speed 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, about 1/3 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape bowl occasionally. Beat 2 minutes longer. Add egg whites, one at a time. Beat well after each addition. Add vanilla and mix well. On low speed, add flour mixture gradually. Add pomegranate juice and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips.

4.       Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.

5.       Bake 28-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center of each comes out clean.

**I reduced the juice by boiling it over the stove until it became slightly thicker. It took me a little less than 3 cups of juice to get ½ cup of the reduction.



Runner-Up...still good but the pomegranate taste was not really there. It tasted more like a chocolate chip muffin with a hint of berry flavor...

Pomegranate Cupcakes test #1 (recipe using straight sparkling juice no reduction)

2 ¾ cups all purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

¾ cup unsalted butter

1 2/3 cups sugar

5 eggs whites

2 ½ teaspoons vanilla

1 ¼ cups sparkling pomegranate juice

1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

1.       Heat oven to 350°F. Line 2, 12 cup muffin tins with cupcake liners.

2.       In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

3.       In large bowl, beat butter with electric mixer on medium speed 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, about 1/3 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape bowl occasionally. Beat 2 minutes longer. Add egg whites, one at a time, beat well after each addition. Add vanilla and mix well. On low speed, add flour mixture gradually. On low speed, add sparkling juice gradually. Stir in chocolate chips.

4.       Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.

5.       Bake 28-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 15 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pans; place on cooling racks to cool. Frost with pomegranate frosting (recipe shown above)







Pomegranate Frosting Recipe

Pomegranate Frosting (frosts 24 cupcakes)

6 cups powdered sugar

2/3 cups unsalted butter, softened

1 tablespoon vanilla

¼ cup sparkling pomegranate juice reduced**

Milk (add as needed)

1.       In large bowl, mix powdered sugar and butter with spoon or electric mixer on low speed. Stir in vanilla, pomegranate juice.

2.       Gradually beat in milk as needed to get the right consistency.

**Sparkling pomegranate juice can be reduced by boiling it on the stove. I used about 1 cup of juice and reduced it to ¼ cup.



So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed our sparkling pomegranate juice test! Check back on my blog or my twitter account CJCupcakery to find out what next week's ingredient is!

~Carolyn





Here's a cake I just made for a birthday party at my dad's work. They wanted a pound cake so I was able to use this recipe for pound cake and turn it in to a layer cake thanks to the suggestion on the website. To see the full recipe go to http://picky-palate.com/2012/03/22/starbucks-iced-lemon-pound-cake-copycat-recipe/#reply. Thanks Picky Palate!

Ok everyone I need you to cheer me on! The ingredient of the week is....pomegranate sparkling soda. I know, I know...it's not extremely crazy but I must remind you we are only beginning! So cross your fingers and let's hope that week 1 goes well. Check back on Tuesday morning (which is the official day of updates starting now) to discover what happened in Carolyn's kitchen that week! Need I remind you...there will be pictures!!

Hello everyone! So the idea of this blog is to get my name out there and advertise my baked goods. However, as I was busy setting up the page I realized, shouldn't there be some sort of growth in my talent as I'm doing this? I mean I don't want to walk away from this in a year and not have accomplished anything. So what I have decided to do is to pick an ingredient each week and incorporate it into a cupcake recipe some how. The objective is for these ingredients to be a bit unexpected so that when you look at the recipe you gasp and say "NO WAY HOW COULD THAT POSSIBLY TASTE GOOD?!" Then, just out of curiosity you head to the store, grab your supplies and make the recipe, at which point you realize...this girl Carolyn is a genius! But if the recipes worked every time would that really be any fun at all? Of course not! Which is why we can expect to see recipes that don't work at all (and for comedic purposes, I will have pictures!) So for the next 12 months, each week I will be picking a new ingredient to cook with in an attempt to come up with a mouthwatering creation. But we need some rules don't you think? Here they are:

1. Ingredients don't have to be completely insane (example: frog legs) but they should be something you don't normally see in baking.

2. Research and preparation is allowed, but following a specific recipe is NOT allowed.

3. Pictures of each experiment and my honest feedback is required each week.

4. Requests (should we get any), should be considered...unless of course they are very crazy and cannot be found at the local grocery store!

5. At least once a month, I will have vegan recipes.

So there you have it...maybe in a year I will be an amazing baker that can make a delicious cupcake out of absolutely anything. Or maybe I will run away crying. If you're curious to see what will happen...it's all happening here for your viewing pleasure. So let's get started!! This week's ingredient will be posted soon!

Yours truly,
Carolyn

Strawberry cupcakes with strawberry buttercream frosting. My sister is crazy about this one!

These are "burger" cupcakes! Surprisingly not too difficult to make but they look pretty realistic!

 

I saw a youtube video about these....rainbow cupcakes! The minute I saw the video I had to try it...these did not last long in my house so it's a good thing I got pictures!