Green Tea & Pomegranate Cupcakes

This week I am venturing away from my Martha Stewart Cupcake Book and trying to put together my own cupcakes.

 

One of the categories for the cupcake contest this weekend is "Most Unique Ingredient." So I am sitting there thinking, and even brainstorming with my girlfriends, what "unique" ingredient could I use?

 

They tossed around some odd ingredients like avocado, cucumber, ginger and wasabi, but those ingredients don't really make me think of yummy cupcakes! right?

 

I even browsed around for bacon cupcakes, and believe it or not, bacon was  the winning ingredient for other cupcake contests! 

 

Well I can't do bacon now, but I did find a recipe called french toast cupcakes with bacon buttercream frosting. Sounds like a breakfast dream to me.

 

I finally decided to try a green tea cupcake recipe. This one I found here, incorporates pomegranate seeds. Yum! I went with a different frosting, here and sprinkled the pomegranate seeds as a garnish.

 

The Frosting:

The frosting did not turn out like the picture! It was more of a glaze, but still had a nice rich and creamy green tea taste. The bursting pomegranate seeds were the perfect compliment. Even mixed inside, it could have used double measurements.

 

The Cupcake:

I really liked the cupcake. It was dense and moist, and tasted very much like green tea. The recipe calls for green tea matcha powder which adds that flavor and the green color.

 

Overall Review:

My cupcake tasters really liked this one! They thought it was really "unique" which could qualify it for this weekend's competition. 

 

They felt the same way I did about the frosting, it could have had a better consistency. Those who did not like green tea didn't even bother tasting these, so make sure you have an open minded audience.

 

I would make these again, and probably work with a different recipe for frosting. I thought they were really great with a nice cup of hot green tea, and again the pomegranate seeds were really quite a treat.