Sparkling Wine and Pomegranate Cupcakes
This is a little late. I’ll be honest, I didn’t make these until this evening because I was busy this weekend hanging out with my sister in New York! But at work today I really wanted to make a cupcake again so I tossed together this recipe. I would have made some for Thanksgiving but my plane landed at noon on Thursday and my the time we finished cooking I was EXHAUSTED, so I really didn’t want to put effort into the dessert. Our dinner was beautiful though!
My sister Elizabeth made the potatoes (which were so delicious with scallions and parsley and garlic) and I made everything else. Elizabeth isn’t the best at following recipes – she tried to boil three whole, unpeeled potatoes because she didn’t read the ingredients list where it said “peel and dice” – so she did the pretty flower arrangement, took pictures, and kept the mood up! Plus potatoes take a lot of time to make that delicious.
I can’t believe all these ingredients plus more were for just 2 people.
It was just the two of us for dinner thursday, but it was lovely. We finished the night off with a family tradition of watching an animated movie – we actually watched two: Monsters University and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (both are awesome). Then we spent the rest of the weekend watching The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, eating more food, and going ice skating! Somehow, despite growing up in Michigan, I’ve never been on ice skates before.
In this picture, Elizabeth picks me up after I fall right on my butt
My butt is seriously still bruised.
But back to these cupcakes! I based them off this Sparkling Pomegranate Punch and it does indeed make a good cupcake.
sparkling pomegranate cupcakes
Also I forgot to get cupcake liners to I used aluminum foil. The results were the same. These are delicious, the pomegranate in the batter really kicks the flavor up a notch and the white chocolate frosting is perfect for these.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3/4 cup sparkling white wine
- 3/8 cup pomegranate juice
- 1/8 cup pineapple juice
- 1 tbsp orange juice
- 2.5 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup pomegranate arils
- 1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
- 1/4 cup white chocolate, melted and cooled
- 1.5-2 cups powdered sugar
- 2-3 tbsp milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Cream butter and sugar for about 5 minutes, then add egg and vanilla
- Mix in sparkling wine, pomegranate juice, pineapple juice, and orange juice (don't worry if it curdles, it'll smooth out when the dry ingredients are added)
- In a different bowl, sift together the dry ingredients and create a well in the middle
- Pour the wet mixture into the dry and combine - it's okay if it's still contains some little lumps but it should also take on a creamier consistency.
- fold in pomegranate arils
- Fill liners 3/4 of the way full and bake for 16 minutes
- To make the frosting cream the butter and chocolate together
- Slowly add the powdered sugar, alternating with wet ingredients to make combining easier
- Wait for cupcakes to cool and frost away!