POM Wonderful Molten Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramelized POM Ganache

In honor of Valentine's Day, POM Wonderful is hosting a cupcake contest. Since February is American Heart Month, POM Wonderful is donating $1 per entry to the American Heart Association.

The key is to come up with a tasty cupcake recipe featuring a POM Wonderful product, and my entry is a rich and delectable POM Wonderful Molten Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramelized POM Ganache. The POM juice accents the batter and the ganache, giving the chocolate a lightly tart and fruity undertones. It's pretty intense.

There are three awesome prizes being given away, and I'd love to be able to snag one of them. To help, simply click the POM badge on the sidebar. You'll be taken to my recipe on the POM contest site where you can hit the Facebook "Like" button to vote. You could also share the link on your Facebook and ask your friends and relations to vote, too! Voting begins today, February 14th, and runs through February 28th. Voting opens 11:00 a.m. PST, today.

First, I prepared the caramelized ganache. This makes up the gooey center of the cupcakes as well as being the finishing touch, a dollop of whipped ganache on top. Decadent, to state the obvious. I began by heating up whipping cream with POM juice. In a separate skillet I caramelized some sugar until a deep golden color was achieved. After that was ready, I poured some of the heated whipping cream-POM mixture in, whisking vigorously to make a caramel sauce. Off the heat, I added the rest and stirred until combined. You then pour the caramel sauce over the chocolate, let stand for a minute, then whisk until all the chocolate is melted and a smooth consistency resulted. Portion the ganache and refrigerate some to harden, letting the rest cool to room temperature.

The batter for the cakes comes together quickly, as the recipe works like a brownie. The butter is melted with the chocolate, eggs, POM juice, vanilla extract, and confectioners' sugar is stirred in, then finally the flour. I let the batter sit at room temperature for about an hour.

Before baking the cupcakes, I rolled out tablespoonfuls of ganache to prepare the for the center. The batter is divided between well-greased muffin tin cups, then a ball of ganache gets placed on top. Don't press all the way down, just slightly. A quick 13 minutes in the oven is all that's necessary for the cupcakes to cook. You don't have to worry about overbaking these since the ganache softens from the heat to achieve the gooey center. Very simple.

After cooling for a few minutes in the tins, the cupcakes are carefully removed and set on plates. Dollop with the remaining ganache, which has been whipped, and the cakes are dusted with confectioners' sugar to finish.

Thanks for your support in voting! I really appreciate it.

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POM Wonderful Molten Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramelized POM Ganache
Recipe adapted from McCormick Gourmet

Makes 14-16 cupcakes

ingredients -

1 cup granulated sugar
8 ounces whipping cream
2/3 plus 2 tablespoons cup POM Wonderful juice
12 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips
8 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
8 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3 tablespoons POM Wonderful Juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse sea salt
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 large egg yolks, room temperature
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
Confectioners' sugar, for garnish

directions -

1. Place chocolate chips and unsweetened chocolate in a large bowl. Heat whipping cream and 2/3 cup POM juice to a simmer in a small pot. Keep warm. In a large skillet over medium heat, sprinkle sugar evenly over surface. Allow sugar to melt and caramelize, 7-10 minutes. Stir sugar only when most of the sugar begins to caramelize. Standing back from skillet, pour 1/2 cup heated whipping cream mixture into caramel, whisking vigorously. Stir in remaining whipping cream mixture and continue stirring until combined. If there are any lumps, discard.


2. Pour over chocolate and let stand for a minute. Whisk until chocolate is melted and a smooth, dark ganache is achieved. Measure out 1 1/4 cup ganache and place in a shallow dish. Chill until solid. Let remaining ganache cool to room temperature. Add 2 tablespoons POM juice and whip with an electric mixer until lightened in color, 3-4 minutes. Set aside.


3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease 16 standard muffin cups well. In a large, microwavable bowl, melt butter and chocolate on high for 1-2 minutes, until butter melts. Stir until chocolate melts.


4. In a medium bowl, whisk eggs to break up yolks. Stir in POM juice and vanilla. Add to chocolate mixture and whisk to combine. Whisk in confectioners' sugar and sea salt. Stir in flour just until combined. Let batter sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to 1 hour.


5. Meanwhile, portion chilled ganache into 1 tablespoon-sized balls. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. Place a ganache ball on top and press in lightly. Bake for 13 minutes. Sides of cupcake should feel firm when pressed. Cool in tins for 7 minutes. Using an offset spatula, carefully remove cupcakes from tin and place on a cooling rack.


6. To serve, place a cupcake on a plate. Dollop with 1 1/2 - 2 tablespoons whipped ganache. Lightly dust with confectioners' sugar. Enjoy!

Notes -

Ganache can be made a day ahead of time. Divide portions, then cover and refrigerate. Heat ganache for topping in a metal bowl set over a pot of simmering water just until ganache melts enough to whisk easily. Let cool, then whip.

Batter can be portioned into muffin tins and refrigerated overnight, covered. Remove from fridge and let sit for 30 minutes while oven heats to room temperature. Top with ganache balls and bake. It may need an additional 2-3 minutes.

red velvet cupcakes with stevia in the raw

What better way to say I love you than with a treat that won't send your lover into a diabetic shock?

Hey, I had to temper the mushiness. I'm sorry.

Since my stock of Stevia In The Raw hadn't been used up, I decided this was the perfect time to try their recipe for red velvet cupcakes.

Sugar plays an important roll in baking. Not only does it affect sweetness, but there's a bit of science behind it. Sugar aids in the texture, moisture, and development of the baked good. The leavening helps baked good rise, but sugar does as well as air is beaten into the batter or dough when whipped with the fat, thus aiding the structure. (Read more: Joy of Baking)

Therefore, it reasons that using a sugar substitute will produce a sub-par result. Knowing this, Stevia In The Raw recipes replaces just half the regular sugar with stevia, allowing the sugar to do its thing but at the same time reducing the calories. Will you still notice a difference? Yes. I'll explain later on.

(It's also important to note that many sugar substitutes, stevia included, are much sweeter than sugar. There are conversion rates if adding to a recipe that doesn't require baking, though SITR says you can use the powder 1:1 in baking. Visit their site for more info.)

While this recipe was straightforward, I didn't feel like whipping egg whites. Following the technique of Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake, I added the egg whites to the buttermilk and gave the batter a 2 minute whip after the baking soda and vinegar were added. The batter was voluminous and tasty.

Now, most brands of stevia have a rather unpleasant licorice aftertaste. This brand is better than many because the aftertaste isn't very pronounced. I started tasting it after a while, especially in the cream cheese frosting, but this was most likely to tasting the batter... Multiple times. Like licking the beaters and finished off the bowl. The family tested some and didn't really notice it, so that's another plus for this brand.

The recipe calls for 3 tablespoons red food coloring. I used an entire 1 ounce bottle of Wilton's coloring paste, which says "concentrated" on the label. I may or may not have tasted it in the batter. This isn't the no flavor version, I don't think. I didn't taste it after the cupcakes had baked up, luckily. However, I'm not sure if I used too much of this type of food coloring. Look at the bowl filled with water!

My changes to the frosting was using just 4 tablespoons butter (for a very lazy reason -- I didn't want to get more out) and adding 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar. I realized I didn't want a straight up cream cheese frosting, and since I turned half the batter into a 6-inch layer cake I would need more for frosting it. I'm not going to type those instructions out since other recipes can be found, like the one I linked to below (for my favorite red velvet cake).

I can't complain about this recipe. It produced such wonderfully domed cupcakes. The height was so stunning that I paused before covering them up with the frosting. The memory will live on in pictures. The texture was a little rubbery and a bit on the dry side but not bad at all. I definitely would make these for friends and family concerned with sugar intake, though it's not going to replace my favorite red velvet cake recipe. That recipe doesn't use any baking powder and I wonder if that's why this recipe was on the rubbery-bouncy side. The recipes are almost similar otherwise, though this one called for 3 tablespoons dye. I prefer my modification of 1 tablespoon dye and teaspoons of raspberry jello powder I talked about in that post.

I found another use for the Nordic Ware covered pie pan I reviewed, though it can only fit 8 cupcakes.

Tiny cakes are adorable. This little 6-inch double layer red velvet beauty was made with the remaining batter after making 12 cupcakes. It took about half an hour to bake, so next time I will use both of the cake pans I prepared. If you only have two people in your household, you can make half the recipe. If you make the full recipe and give away or freeze the extras.

I'll leave you with a question: If muffin tins don't have to be greased and floured (assuming you aren't using liners), why do cake pans? I've never had much trouble getting cupcakes out of the tins, and I only grease the bottoms (my Wilton pan is nonstick). However, I would never ever not grease and flour cake pans. In fact, I almost always line them (I didn't this time and it released perfectly). Maybe it's because the cake pans I use have ridges on the bottom and that's why cakes stick if I don't use parchment.

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red velvet cupcake with stevia in the raw
Recipe adapted from Stevia In The Raw

Makes 24 cupcakes

ingredients -

Cupcakes

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
3 tablespoons red food color
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 egg yolks
3 egg whites
1 cup low fat buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup Stevia Extract In The Raw® Cup For Cup
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional, though you really can't taste it)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar
2 1/4 cups Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream cheese frosting

2 (8 ounce) packages reduced fat cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon Stevia Extract In The Raw® Cup For Cup
1/4 cup 1% low fat milk

directions -

Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease two 12 cup muffin tins or use liners.


2. In small bowl combine cocoa, red food color and vanilla, set aside.


3. In large bowl beat together butter and granulated sugar for 3 minutes. Add yolks one at a time and beat well after each addition. Add cocoa mixture and blend well.


4. In another bowl, whisk egg whites with buttermilk. Combine Stevia Extract In The Raw, cayenne pepper, baking powder, and salt with cake flour. Add buttermilk mixture and flour mixture to cocoa mixture, alternating a third at a time beating after each addition. Combine baking soda and vinegar then add to batter and blend well. Beat for an additional 2 minutes.


5. Fill each muffin tin 2/3 full with batter. Bake 13-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.


6. Remove from oven and let cool 5-10 minutes before removing from tins. Cool cupcakes on rack before frosting.

Cream cheese frosting

In a medium bowl combine all ingredients and blend well. Makes enough frosting for 36 cupcakes.

(This confused me. I'd adjust proportions so you end up with exactly as much frosting you need without any extra. The caloric guide says each cupcake gets 1 1/2 tablespoons frosting, though I did use more.)

per serving -

Cupcakes

120 calories, 45 calories from fat, 5g fat, 3g saturated fat, 0g trans fat, 2g protein, 16g carbohydrate,1g dietary fiber, 170mg sodium, 45mg cholesterol.

Cream cheese frosting ( 1 1/2 Tablespoons)

64 calories, 44 calories from fat, 6g fat, 3.6g saturated fat, 0g trans fat, 2g protein, 1g carbohydrate, 0g dietary fiber, 48mg sodium, 16mg cholesterol.

Coconut Rooibos Cupcakes

These are some fantastic cupcakes, people. My inspiration for the mods to the recipes I used came from a new tea from Victorian Pantry. Steve, the owner, uses a unique, personalized blend of coffee that he has roasted just prior to shipping. He now offers a selection of specially blended teas that I decided to try. Obviously, I am using the coconut rooibos as the flavoring in the cupcakes.

Rooibos is a South African red herbal tea and has a light, unique flavor. It also looks pretty, tinting the water red. Since it's herbal, it's also caffeine free. Coupled with coconut, how can you go wrong here? My only concern was getting the flavor from the tea to come through in the cupcake completely. To do this, I decided to infused the liquid in the recipe (the milk in both the cupcakes and frosting) and let the milk for the cupcakes come back to room temperature.

You may notice specks. Specks in the frosting and specks in the cupcake itself. That's because I chose not to strain the tea leaves because I liked the look. There really is nothing wrong with eating the tea leaves (I already ate a cupcake and didn't die) and it looks pretty.

For the cupcake, I chose a recipe from Joy of Baking for vanilla cupcakes. Unfortunately, the cupcakes were a little on the dry side. I kind of figured, using only 1/4 cup of milk, and I should have increased it to 1/2 a cup. Or I don't know, because it would have ruined the yield. Anyway, they rose nicely and had perfect domes. I added 1 1/2 teaspoons tea leaves to the milk after it had been scalded.

The flour frosting I made is something many of you might think unusual. It's more like a Swiss meringue buttercream than a standard buttercream, though instead of an egg white-sugar mixture you make a quick pudding with flour, sugar, salt, and milk. To this mixture, right in the pot, I added 1 1/2 teaspoons tea leaves. Once the pudding mixture has cooled (I beat it for a bit, let it set, beat some more, etc.), you add in all the butter and beat until the butter emulsifies into the pudding and thickens to a frosting.
A few tips: This pudding only turns the texture of a paste. It won't be thick, but should still pass the spoon test. Make sure the butter is at room temperature -- a bit cool, but can easily be indented with your finger. If it's too soft, the frosting will be soft.
My overall thoughts on this recipe is that it made a good amount for just 12 cupcakes with just a bit extra. It seemed less temperamental than a Swiss meringue buttercream, as you can add all the butter at once and I didn't have any issues with separation. I made a pastry cream frosting a while ago for the Hostess Orange Cupcake birthday cake and really liked it, though it's not quite as sturdy. Anyway, it's really easy and delicious.

As for the tea itself, the flavor was light with a floral note, and had a smooth coconut essence. I felt it was enhanced by a bit of sweetener. The scent was incredible, and I have to say its one of my new favorite teas.

Next time you want a dessert with a unique twist, get creative with the flavorings by adding different teas to the mix. Even if you aren't a big tea drinker, you will still appreciate how tea enhances baking.

mocha cupcakes+espresso buttercream

Bit of silence happening over here in case you haven't noticed. I figured the best way to make it up to you was with cupcakes... that you can't eat. But we're ignoring that last part.

I saw the recipe for mocha cupcakes with espresso buttercream over at Brown Eyed Baker and figured, why not? What caught my eye were the words "mocha" and "espresso", something that gets me every time. If I'm ever talking to you and start losing my focus, adding a quick, out of context "ESPRESSO" will immediately snap me back to attention.

Mocha means a combination of chocolate and coffee. These cupcakes definitely do the job with both strong brewed coffee for part of the liquid, and instant espresso powder for an added boost. I felt the balance between the cocoa flavor and the coffee was really good here, and the cupcakes came out very moist and tender.

The frosting is just a basic butter and confectioners' sugar frosting, enhanced yet again with the addition of espresso power and some vanilla extract. What I noticed was that there wasn't any milk in this recipe, so the texture of the frosting remained firm, but still silky in texture.

This recipe makes exactly one dozen cupcakes, so it's perfect if you want a dessert that yields just enough without spending all day in the kitchen decorating and cleaning up. Because that's really not the point of baking, to clean dishes when you should be eating a cupcake.

chocolate cupcakes

When I have a hankering for cupcakes, it's usually spur-of-the-moment and I want them rather quickly. I'm looking for a moist, tender crumb that can stand alone if I don't feel like icing it with anything, something flavorful and not requiring epic steps to produce.

My go-to recipe is the Baisc (Vegan) Chocolate Cupcake recipe from Chow.com. Making just a dozen and mixing up in only two bowls and no beaters, it doesn't get any simpler than this and is just as fast as using a mix. I did adapt this to be a non-vegan recipe, replacing the soy milk-vinegar mixture with buttermilk, adding an egg, then I used half butter in the frosting recipe. Besides the almond extract, I added two teaspoons of instant coffee to the dry ingredients and you should, too.

The frosting whips up into an airy and incredibly smooth mixture -- don't even think about not using the entire amount of milk called for as it's the reason the texture is so light. Using all the frosting divvied up gives you a generous mountain o' frosting for each cupcake, and brightened with some sprinkles it's impossible to resist. Simply impossible.

End of post.

Natl. Peanut Butter Day and Happy Belated Birthday to Elvis Presley!

The following took place on 24 January 2008

I know what you might be thinking, "What the heck does peanut butter have to do with Elvis Presley?" If that's what you were thinking, SHAME ON YOU! As punishment, you must watch the King make is favorite snack, a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. Too bad Elvis didn't know he was a foodie. :(

Despite what you may have thought about peanut butter and me, it's not my favorite snack. It gives me a claustrophobic feeling, though I swear that a tablespoon of natural peanut butter cures hiccups, followed by a few swigs of water (so says my brother, and he's right). But Elvis, however, brings out my peanut butter love in the form of warm, gooey peanut butter. In fact, I meant to celebrate Elvis' birthday by making a grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich, but I forgot. Now it's your turn to say SHAME ON YOU, Christina! As soon as I saw the recipe for King Cupcakes from Cooking Light, I knew I could rectify my mistake, and since this is National Peanut Butter Day, talk about killing two birds with one stone!

Are not these the cutest? The perfectly domed crowns are beautiful! When I talk about a great-looking cupcake, this is what I mean.

Cream cheese-peanut butter frosting. The lighting gives it a jaundiced-hue...


Glamour Shots by Deb


This is the cupcake's equivalent to a mug shot. It's punishment is to be consumed immediately.


The perfect amount of frosting is the same for the espresso-milk ratio in a cappuccino, which is 1/3 frosting (espresso) to 2/3 cupcake (milk).

Did this recipe do justice to the King?

Cupcake: For the little amount of banana in the recipe, I was worried it might not stand out well in the baked cupcake. I was kind of wrong, as there was a pleasant banana essence, though it didn't scream "OOH, BANANA!!" That usually means it has the potential to be overpowered by the frosting...

The texture of the cupcake was between dense and light. It had a decent amount of sponginess without being rubbery, but it didn't have that wonderful melt-in-your-mouth feature. It was also decently moist without being sticky or gummy and didn't immediately turn to mush as soon as you begin to chew it.

Frosting: If you recall from the last post, I really enjoy peanut butter frosting. What intrigued me about this recipe was that it called for cream cheese. Tasting the finished frosting alone, it had a wonderfully subtle tanginess that I felt enhanced the peanut butter frosting experience. I'm adding this to my recipe box. It was very light and airy, like the frosting for the chocolate-chocolate-banana cake was.

(I added an extra ounce of cream cheese, 2 Tbsp. of peanut butter, 1/3 cup confectioner's sugar, and 1 1/2 Tbsp. of milk to make more frosting. If you don't want to make more, you still need at least 1 1/2 teaspoons (1/2 Tbsp.) of milk or else it's too thick.)

The combined effect: As I said above, the ratio of frosting-to-cupcake is 1/3-to-2/3. Why? You don't want to overpower the cupcake. (The only reason to overpower the cupcake is if it's a terrible cupcake, which usually means the frosting will be terrible, which in turn means you shouldn't be eating it to begin with.) Well, the banana flavor of the cupcake wasn't as noticeable versus eating the cupcake itself. If you take a bite with too much frosting on your fork, it really overpowers it, but if you stop thinking about the taste, it all melds together into a subconscious banana-peanut buttery fusion. I would, however, prefer a cupcake with more banana taste next time.

The only part I wasn't able to do was sprinkle chopped peanuts on top because I didn't have any. It would have given it a great texture contrast, as well as cutting the sweetness, though this wasn't really uber sweet at all.

Personally, I think the King would have approved. Upon biting into a cupcake version of his supposedly favorite snack, he would have replied, "Thank you, thank you very much. ;)."

(Another foodie, Culinary in the Desert, blogged about King Cupcakes back in February. Read it. Click this here link!)