A Sweet Summers End

Perhaps you have seen my "Cupcake of the Week" feature on essence.com. It just launched last Thursday and I'm very excited about it. Well now that I have this weekly cupcake business I have new responsibilities, tasks and deadlines. It's all very sweet-though, no pun intended. As you know Labor Day is quickly approaching- the last hurrah of the summer, so I had this idea of doing watermelon cupcakes for my next feature. Part of my responsibility is to come up with a new recipe every week, actually that's my only responsibility for this position. Anyway, back to the cupcakes. I wanted to use fresh watermelon puree in my batter. I had never done this before, but I thought this was a special occasion and so apropos for the holiday. In the past I've used other fruits and vegetables in cupcakes so I figured I had a good idea about how it should go down. So, I gave it a try. And all I can say is DELISH!!

First, I bought a whole watermelon sliced it in quarters ate about half of it while cutting it up (laugh), but I did reserve enough for the cupcakes of course. I pureed my juicy reddish-pinkish fruit in a blender until it was good enough to enjoy as a watermelon smoothie. I added the liquid to my batter tasted it, (even though you should never eat raw batter) I had to know if it was watermelony enough (don't think that's a word). So here it goes...tasting...
Yuuu-mmmm-yyy! I bake them for 20-25 minutes until they're spongy and the toothpick inserted comes out clean then I take the cupcakes out of the oven, let cool. The color is perfect! The best shade of fresh watermelon straight from the farm. I say to myself, this looks good! Should I frost them? What hue of food coloring should I use? Moss green or Christmas red? Do I want to match the skin of the watermelon with the dark to light green vein like lines or do I want to resemble more of the interior of the rosey seedless ready to eat appeal? Hmmm decisions. Sometimes I like it bare, but then again sometimes with frosting on top, pretty please is my fancy. Can you relate?

I can't wait to taste my perfectly colored watermelon treat straight out of the oven (more like after 10 minutes of cooling) but still slightly warm-love that! Once I bite into it, immediately, I decide frosting- no way!! So I leave them plain. They looked like perfectly ripe miniature watermelons in cupcake liners. Couldn't beat the aesthetics. Besides cupcakes these days come swirled and sprinkled, piped and topped or not! I'm just having it my way that's all! Isn't that my prerogative? So, if you want to see the finished product check out the recipe this Thursday on essence.com/recipes. P.S. my stepdaughter took the photo, maybe the next Annie Leibowitz (smile). Have a Happy Labor Day!

posted by Nicole Friday for the Cupcake Craze