POM Wonderful Chocolate Cupcakes

A few weeks ago, the fabulous people at POM Wonderful sent me a free sample of their pomegranate juice!  Yay!  Have you guys ever tried this stuff?  It’s delicious and the health benefits from it are amazing.  

Here are a few outcomes of numerous studies done by POM Wonderful where patients drank 8oz of POM Wonderful Pomegranate Juice daily:

Cardiovascular

• In 13 healthy male volunteers who drank POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice for 2 weeks, the amount of LDL cholesterol oxidation decreased by 20% and antioxidant activity in the blood increased by 9%. Read the study.

Prostate Cancer

• • In a clinical study involving 46 men with rising PSA after prostate cancer treatment (surgery or radiation) who consumed 8 ounces of POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice daily over two years, PSA doubling time increased from 15 to 54 months (p <0.001).5 A longer term (6-year) continued evaluation of active sub-group patients showed a further increase in PSA doubling time to 88 months. Read the study.
  * PSA doubling time is an indicator of prostate cancer progression.

Pretty awesome, right?  Major health benefits from such a little bottle.  Anyways, beside just drinking this juice, I wanted to make something with it.  After searching the POM website, I found a chocolate cupcake recipe!  Chocolate cupcakes made with pomegranate juice??  I was intrigued and decided to make it.  The chocolate cupcakes were delicious and had just a hint of pomegranate flavor in them…and of course, they were 100% healthy because of this juice and had zero calories in them (I can’t dream can’t I?). 

Along with the cupcakes, I also found a recipe for cream cheese frosting on the POM website, but I had some issues with it.  It calls for 1 1/2 cups of juice.  That seems like an awful lot for frosting, doesn’t it?  I’ve made many frostings in my day, but never one with so much liquid.  In fact, I only added 1/4 cup of juice because it made the frosting so runny.  There was no way that my frosting was going to turn out like this picture.

 

Has anyone else tried to make this recipe before?  What did I do wrong?  Anyway, it turned out to be more of an icing, so I just dunked the cupcakes in them and viola!  Deliciousness.  Thank you POM Wonderful for sending me some juice.  I already feel healthier! :)

Enjoy!

 

Cupcake ingredients.

Iced cupcakes.

Frosting ingredients.

Mmmmm.

POM Wonderful Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 cup POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup water, heated to boiling
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons vinegar (not wine vinegar)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F with rack in the center, place a paper baking cup in each of 24 regular sized muffin cups.
2. Whisk together the dry ingredients to combine well, in a large measuring cup.
3. Combine pomegranate juice and boiling water.  Add oil, vinegar and vanilla to the pomegranate juice mixture.
4. Add to the flour mixture all at once and whisk to combine (batter will be lumpy).
5. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups (about half full), bake 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean and free of crumbs, let cool.

POM Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice
• 4 oz. soft unsalted butter
• 8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
• 14 oz. powdered sugar

Directions

1. Place butter into electric mixer bowl with paddle attachment and cream on medium-high speed for 1 minute, add the cream cheese and continue to mix for 2 more minutes,
2. Turn the speed down to low and slowly add in the powdered sugar and the pomegranate juice, mix until the sugar is fully combined.
3. Remove icing from the mixer and place into a piping bag with a round or star tip.
4. OR just dunk your cupcake into the runny icing! :)

Chocolate Toffee Candy

Hello blog readers!  I hope you are all doing well.  Today I present you with one of the easiest and most delicious recipes ever!  Have you ever had a Skor candy bar?  Well, if you haven’t, I highly encourage you to go to the store and buy one right now because they are delicious.  According to the Hershey website, “with buttery toffee enrobed in milk chocolate, this bar is a distinctively rich treat.”  Mmmmm, toffee and chocolate.

I came across this recipe on Recipezaar.com and of course, it’s fabulous!  There are 4 ingredients total and it takes about 15 minutes of cook/put together time and that’s it!  I’ve made this twice now.  The first time I cut the recipe in half, which works nicely, and used semi-sweet chocolate chips.  It was good…but it didn’t quite taste like a Skor bar, so when I made it again, I used milk chocolate chips and it was AMAZING!  I took it into work and got nothing but raves about it.  If you’re looking for a quick treat or dessert, I really recommend this recipe.

Enjoy!

 

Ingredients.

Toffee.

Delicious!

Mock Skor Bars, by Recipezaar

Ingredients

• 24 regular salted Saltine crackers
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line a 13 x9 inch pan with Parchment (or foil) paper for easy clean up. Arrange crackers evenly in pan.
2. In saucepan over medium heat melt butter. Stir in brown sugar until melted and smooth. Bring mixture to a boil stirring constantly until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Boil for 2 minutes and then pour mixture evenly over cracker.
3. Bake in oven for 5 minutes.
4. Sprinkle chocolate pieces evenly over caramel mixture. Return to oven just long enough for chocolate to melt. Spread chocolate evenly with spatula.
5. Place pan in refrigerator or freezer until chocolate is firm. Cut or break into pieces.