Love in the Transitions: Vanilla Cupcakes with Pomegranate Cream Filling and Marshmallow Frosting

Vanilla Cupcakes with Pomegranate Cream Filling and Marshmallow Frosting

Phew. That’s a mouthful, that title, but isn’t it just the way? Sometimes you’re so full up of things there’s no way to be brief.

These were created for my a good friend in The Menopause Supper Club. We meet once a month to talk about the next stage of life, and we are all in various places along that line. She is officially done with the Red Tide, and it’s time to celebrate swimming to the other side.

But transitions aren’t usually easy, and we need to love our people hard through them. My way is The Way of the Cake, applied liberally and often.

So whether you’re celebrating a transition or struggling through it, these are for you.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Pomegranate Cream Filling and Marshmallow Frosting

Vanilla Cupcakes

350 grams (about 2 1/2 c.) gluten-free all-purpose flour mix (or cake flour if gluten isn’t an issue)

1 tablespoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter (one stick), softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

310 grams (about 1 1/4 c.) sugar

2 eggs

1 cup milk (non-dairy works here — I use oat milk often — but don’t use skim)

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use 24 cupcake liners in two pans (this recipe makes two dozen cupcakes)

In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl with hand mixer), cream butter with sugar and vanilla extract. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until smooth. Add dry ingredients and milk, starting and ending with dry (flour, milk, flour, milk, flour).

Add 3 tablespoons of batter to each cupcake liner (I use a 3T cookie scoop). Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove and let cool completely in the pan before proceeding.

These can also be frozen at this point or frosted with ready-made frosting if you like.

Pomegranate Cream Filling

4 ounces softened cream cheese (full fat. Please.)

3/4 cup sifted powdered sugar

2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses (see Recipe Notes)

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Method

Chill a wire whisk or the beaters of a handheld mixer before you begin.

Place cream cheese, powdered sugar, and pomegranate syrup in the bowl of a stand mixer (or a mixing bowl if using handheld beater). Cream together until blended and smooth, then slowly add heavy cream as you beat until fluffy. This might take awhile, so be patient.

Store this in the fridge while you prepare the frosting.

Marshmallow frosting

250 grams (approximately 2 cups) powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

2 teaspoons light corn syrup

2 egg whites

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

Add ingredients to a medium metal bowl and whisk to combine. Place metal bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and beat with a hand mixer on medium until the mixture begins to thicken (like marshmallow Fluff). Continue to beat on high until mixture stiffens (stiff peaks). This whole process takes 10-15 minutes.

Remove from heat and add vanilla. Continue to beat the frosting until it is completely cool.

Assembly

Start by cutting a divot out of the center of each cupcake. Do this by inserting a paring knife at a diagonal into the top of the cupcake and twirling to remove a cone of cake. Lop off the pointy end and set the now-flat top aside.

You can use a teaspoon to put cream into the center of each cupcake (easiest and what I did), or make a DIY piping bag. Place pomegranate cream filling in a ziploc and seal it. Cut off one corner and pipe filling into your cupcake. Top with the flat piece of cake you removed.

Frost with a liberal hand using a piping bag with the tip of your choice if you’re fancy, or use a knife and swirl away (again, easiest and what I did).

You can sprinkle with a little coconut if that’s your jam, or break out the blowtorch and add a little toastiness to the top. The smoky flavor pairs well with all of the other flavors.

Recipe Notes

Every component of these cupcakes doubles easily.

You can reduce a cup of pomegranate juice down to 1/4 or 1/2 cup and use that instead of molasses. You can also add another tablespoon of pomegranate molasses for a really punchy filling.

If you’d like a less-sweet cupcake, skip the marshmallow and slice each cupcake in half horizontally. Fill with pomegranate cream and put it together like a sandwich.

Passionfruit and Lemon Curd

Sunny, sweet, and tart. Best when the outside of the passionfruit is wrinkly and it feels heavy in the hand.

What do you do when the sun is out, but it’s frigid, with temperatures dropping and snow on the way? And you just need a little tart sweetness in your life?

You make passionfruit and lemon curd.

Floral. Sharp. Delicious.

Put it on a biscuit. Swirl it into yogurt. Eat it from the jar. Your choice.

Passionfruit and Lemon Curd
2 passionfruits
2 lemons (juice and zest)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
5 tablespoons salted butter

Method
In a medium-sized bowl, combine the guts of the passionfruit, lemon juice and zest, and sugar. Strain your beaten eggs through a mesh strainer to remove any stringy bits and add to the bowl. You could also strain the passion fruit guts if you like to remove the seeds, but the little crunch is nice so I leave them in. Whisk these ingredients together and set the bowl aside.

Melt the butter in a large sauce pan over low heat. Whisking constantly, add the egg and juice mixture to the saucepan.

Now is the fun part. Stand over the stove, whisking vigorously, for approximately 10 minutes until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. If you do not keep the mixture moving, you will end up with lemon-scented scrambled eggs. So put on a podcast, and settle in.

If your mixture does scramble slightly, you can always press it through a strainer after it’s thick. This will remove those passionfruit seeds, but that’s OK.

Refrigerate curd. It will thicken as it cools and become absolutely perfect. Best to eat this within a week, but you can also freeze it in ice cube trays and for use in smoothies or even as a swirl in homemade ice cream.

NOTE:
You can make this curd with any citrus fruit. You may need to adjust the sugar depending on how tart the citrus is, but you’ll need between 3/4 and 1 cup of liquid for this recipe if using another citrus fruit.

We Could All Use Some Sweetness: Vegan (Sugar-free) Mixed Berry Tart

Glossy, delicious, vegan, and sugar-free (with no artificial sugar, either). Truth.

Friends, if you are even a semi-regular reader of this blog, you know that the above headline for this recipe is an anomaly here.

I am a HUGE FAN of sugar. I like it in all of its forms.

I like it in the form of a big piece of cake, balanced on my chest as I lie in the bed and watch TV.

I like it in the form of empty wrappers of Dove dark chocolates, the ones that I used to hand out at the end of my yin classes at Yoga Tree.

I love drippy ice cream cones, cheesecake, caramel apples, scones, muffins, pies.

Watermelon and fresh peaches.

I. Love. Sugar. ALL OF IT.

So imagine my surprise as I find myself in week three of a seasonal Renewal with my good friend Martha at Full Moon Acupuncture with nary a fine grain of sugar anywhere.

THREE WEEKS. I have not had sugar for THREE WEEKS. I haven’t cheated (which I think is stupid language to begin with. “Cheat days” and “cheating” are, in general, ridiculous constructs when it comes to food, and I do not in any way, shape, or form condone the use of them. I use it here to indicate that I have, against all odds, stuck with the program and eliminated all processed foods, including sugars in all forms, for a period that will last four weeks-ish. But I digress.)

Thankfully, and speaking of Weeks, my particular friend KWeeks had a birthday October 1st, and it is traditional for the birthday people in my life to get the dinner and the dessert of their choice on their day. KWeeks has simple taste, so dinner was (for him) French lentils over cornbread and topped with a fried egg.

TRUST ME. This is rustic and delicious. But I couldn’t eat it. See referenced Renewal above. And it’s hard to not share a meal on the birthday of someone you love.

He doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth, but I thought perhaps I could make something sweet that we could both eat.

Enter the vegan, sugar-free mixed berry tart.

Apple syrup made from 100% cold-pressed apple cider provides the sweet, and the gluten-free crust is six simple ingredients: walnuts, almonds, oats, salt, coconut oil, and apple syrup. Technically the oats are not allowed in the Renewal (no grains), but everything else is so damn good for you it doesn’t seem to matter.

It’s pretty, and it’s festive, and it gets real close to satisfying my (still) voracious appetite for sugar.

Vegan (Sugar-free) Mixed Berry Tart

KWeeks and I ate about half of this on his birthday and then shared the rest with his vegan co-workers at The Friends School of Baltimore. They have not been the beneficiaries of my baking, ever, and I am glad to finally be able to have something to share with them.

Ingredients

80 grams almonds (about 2/3 cup)

80 grams walnuts (about 2/3 cup)

70 grams oats (you guessed it: about 2/3 cup)

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons coconut oil

1/4 cup + 3 tablespoons apple syrup (divided)

1/2 cup lemon juice/water combo

1/2 teaspoon agar

3 cups chopped fruit of your choice (see Recipe Notes)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

Preheat oven to 350. Use cooking spray to grease a 9″ tart pan with removable bottom (you can use butter if you don’t want to keep it vegan) and set aside.

Place almonds, walnuts, oats, and salt in a food processor, and pulse to chop fine.

Add coconut oil and 3 tablespoons of your apple syrup and pulse until the mixture begins to come together. Dump into your tart pan and press into an even layer along the bottom and the sides.

Bake until brown and the bottom is firm (between 15 and 20 minutes). If the edges of the crust begin to burn, pull the tart out of the oven and place aluminum foil strips over the edges, then replace and finish. Remove to a wire rack and cool completely while you make the filling (the ‘fridge is great for a quick chill).

To make the filling, place 1/4 cup apple syrup and the 1/2 cup of lemon juice/water combo in a saucepan with the agar. Whisk to combine, and bring just to a boil.

Add the fruit and stir. Warm the fruit (especially if it’s frozen), then add to the chilled tart crust. Place back in the ‘fridge and allow to chill for at least three hours.

Serve with vegan whipped cream, or ice cream, or plain for breakfast. Just as you like.

Recipe Notes

Apple syrup is a delicious way to add sweetness to desserts (or yogurt or granola or whatever) without adding sugar. Well, ok, technically it’s fruit sugar, which the body does still recognize as sugar, but it’s not processed to within an inch of its life. Essentially, you are taking pure apple cider (NOT juice) and boiling it down until it reduces by half. I make this in two-cup batches, so I start with four cups of apple cider. Bring to a medium boil (not a simmer, but not too rolling either). Boil until the cider is reduced by half. If you want it to be even sweeter, keep going and reduce it even more.

Any fruit works here, fresh or frozen. I have used fresh and frozen blueberries, cherries, and nectarines in my tests, and they have all been delicious. You can also switch up the extracts if you like and use an almond extract, but use just 1/4 teaspoon if you do that.

Ambrosia Salad For These Times

Ambrosia salad what you need. Trust me. I’m a professional.

When I lived in the south I had a friend who was a little bit crazy. Actually, really, very crazy. But she was my friend and she was fun until she wasn’t, and she hated ambrosia salad.

Growing up sugar-free, I never knew there was such a thing as ambrosia salad until I got much older, and then the combination of canned fruit and whipped topping was not really something that appealed to me sober, so I never really investigated it. I liked the idea of a salad that was ambrosial, though, and I never quite forgot about it.

But then I met Nancy (name changed to protect her, and me, for she really is crazy), and she challenged me to make an ambrosia salad she liked for a potluck she was having. I did, and it was truly ambrosial. None of this canned, tin-tasting fruit and plastic whipped cream. The secret was fresh ingredients, toasted coconut, and toasted pecans, plus a little pinch of salt at the end.

Could we all use some sweetness and light right now? Yes, I believe we could. Here it is.

Ingredients

1/4 cup unsweetened coconut, toasted

½ cup chopped pecans, toasted

2 oranges, suprémed and cut into ½” pieces

1 large grapefruit, suprémed and cut into ½” pieces

1/2 fresh pineapple, peeled, cored, and cut into ½” pieces

1 cup mini marshmallows

1 cup of heavy whipping cream

3 T confectioner’s sugar

1 tsp vanilla

½ tsp salt

Method

Preheat oven to 350⁰. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place pecans and coconut on the baking sheet. Toast until both begin to brown or darken in color, shaking to prevent burning. This happens fast, so watch closely.

Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

Place fruit in a large bowl with mini marshmallows.

In a medium bowl, beat whipping cream to soft peaks. Add vanilla and sugar and continue beating until the cream just stands up when the beaters are removed (not too stiff).

Fold whipping cream into fruit. Chill completely.

Before serving, add toasted coconut, toasted pecans, and salt and stir to combine.

Recipe notes

  • Maraschino cherries often make an appearance here, but I cannot stomach all of that artificial color. If you must add cherries, add ½ cup of fresh Bing cherries or go completely over the top and add the same amount of Luxardo cherries. Truly heavenly.

Cold Candied Oranges

Glazed orange with strips of peel removed sits in a shallow crystal bowl on a blue background
Sunshine in the rain, friends. Sunshine in the rain.

Yesterday was SHITTY.

It doesn’t really matter which day “yesterday” actually was because, let’s face it, no one really knows what day it is, and if they say they do they are a bald-faced liar.

But yesterday. Woke up with another headache, many weeks straight, anxiety, overall fogginess in my whole body and brain. I was glutened accidentally a couple of days ago, and this accounts for some of it, but I think the general medical term for what I am experiencing is malaise.

I, and many all around the globe, are suffering from malaise: a general feeling of unwellness or discomfort whose cause is not possible to identify.

Yesterday seemed to be the culmination of a long-building malaise. The simplest of tasks were challenging, like swimming through pudding.

I have no solutions. I have no quick fixes. I did the long walk, I taught the yoga class, I hydrated like a motherfucker. I ate well. I took meds – prescription and CBD and allergy meds.

Today?

Today I feel a little better.

I am not going to say that these oranges were the thing that helped, but they certainly did not hurt. Long-time readers of this blog will recall my uneasy truce with citrus (my grandmother is now 101), but I actually went out and bought oranges on purpose for this use.

Correction: I bought them online, and Octavius from Giant on 41st, as wonderful a person as ever walked the earth, put them in my car.

This is not my recipe, these cold, candied oranges. This recipe belongs to The New York Times. Because they sometimes have an annoying paywall, I am going to go ahead and write things out here (copy/paste, actually). I cut the recipe in half because I cannot eat six of these, and even still I will give two away.

But my goodness. The orange, encased in a festively striped peel with the stained glass orange flesh peeking through, becomes plasma inside – not liquid, not solid. The peel keeps a satisfying chew, but the orange itself becomes Something Other, rising above its pedestrian squirty self. The flavor stays true to the orange, and once you’re done eating the orange itself, you’re left with a delicious orange simple syrup for the best old-fashioned you may ever drink.

Get at it. Can’t hurt.

Cold Candied Oranges

Ingredients

6 firm, juicy, seedless oranges with thin skins (Cara Cara oranges), no bigger than a baseball
6 cups granulated sugar

Preparation

  1. Bring a stainless-steel pot of water to a boil. (It should be large enough to hold the oranges submerged.)
  2. Wash and dry the oranges, and channel from stem to navel at 1/2-inch intervals, removing strips of peel while leaving the pith intact, until the oranges resemble those onion domes on Russian churches. (Suzannah’s note: I had no idea what a channeler was, but I actually had one in the drawer in my kitchen. I don’t know that you could substitute any other tool, but I suppose you could try).
  3. Place the oranges and their long, fat threads of channeled peel into the boiling water, and reduce to a simmer. Cover the oranges with a lid one size too small for the pot, to keep them submerged. Let them blanch for about 25 minutes to remove the harshest edge of their bitter nature. They should swell and soften but not collapse or split. (Suzannah’s note: SIMMER. Not rolling boil. They will split)
  4. Remove the oranges and zest from the simmering water with a slotted spoon, and set aside. Dump out the blanching water, and return the dry pot to the stove.
  5. In that same pot, combine the sugar with 6 cups water; bring the sugar water to a boil over medium-high, stirring until the sugar has dissolved, then allow to gently boil, and reduce for 10 minutes, uncovered. You want some water to evaporate and for the syrup to take on a little body.
  6. Carefully place blanched oranges and zest into the sugar syrup, and reduce heat to a very slow, lethargic simmer. Cover oranges with a parchment circle cut slightly larger than the circumference of the pot (by 1 inch is enough), then place the too-small lid on top of the parchment on top of the oranges, to keep them fully submerged (and sealed under the parchment) in the sluggishly simmering syrup.
  7. Cook the oranges in the syrup for about 45 minutes, checking on them frequently to keep the temperature quite slow and stable, until they take on a high gloss and appear vaguely translucent and jewel-like. (We have several induction burners that come with features that can hold a temperature, and I leave the oranges at around 170 degrees for most of the candying, sometimes with a little bump up to 180. But without a thermometer or an induction burner, just a visual slow, slow, slow bubble is a good cue.)(Suzannah’s note: I clipped a candy thermometer to the edge of the pot and watched the temp)
  8. Cool oranges and peels in their syrup for a full 24 hours before serving. This kind of “cures” them. They get even better after 48 hours. First, you’ll want to let them cool at room temperature until no longer warm to the touch, at least 4 hours, then refrigerate them until thoroughly chilled. The oranges last refrigerated for 1 month as long as they are submerged in that syrup.
  9. Serve very cold. Eat the whole thing, skin and all, with a knife and fork. It’s like a half glacéed fruit and half fresh fruit — refreshing, tonic, digestive and so great after dinner.

What helps your malaise?