White Chocolate Pomegranate Cupcakes

I may have said this in this past but this time I really really mean it. These are hands down the best cupcakes I've baked. Free Spirit Bloggers are into their 4th month together (already!) and Lataji chose this month's theme. She gave us all a choice to pick a number between 1-12 and revealed secret ingredients to work with. Mine were white chocolate and pomegranates.

The timing couldn't be more perfect because I had this bar of white chocolate I had bought from Tokyo a year back and since I was in India, I could buy a pomegranate and bring it back with me! Things fell in place beautifully and one Saturday evening, these cupcakes were born.

I searched a lot for a good white chocolate cupcake recipe and although there were quite a few that came up, I finally nailed one from Epicurious. Although a lot of the reviews said the cupcake sank in the middle, got ruined, etc, I had a nice feeling about it. I used a lower baking temperature and they came out ridiculously well. The coconut milk in the batter was intriguing too, and its my first time baking cupcakes with coconut milk in the batter!

The pomegranates gave a nice crunch to the texture and added to the appeal of the otherwise dull-looking cupcakes. One word of caution here. I only had brown sugar in hand so my cupcakes are beige in colour. If you use regular white sugar like you are supposed to, the cupcakes will be white and gorgeous like white chocolate cupcakes are supposed to look.

White Chocolate Cupcakes with Pomegranates
Makes 20 cupcakes
Loosely adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients:
8 oz / 240 gm white chocolate
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup regular white sugar
3 egg whites
3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk
1/4 cup fresh pomegranate seeds

*Optional Mascarpone frosting recipe below. 

How I Made It:

1. Preheat oven to 320F / 180 C. Line cupcake pans with liners and set aside.

2. Melt white chocolate by placing it in a bowl over another bowl of boiling water and stirring frequently, or in a microwave at low heat until just melted and smooth.

3. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat sugar, butter, and vanilla in large bowl until blended. Add hot white chocolate to sugar mixture; stir to combine. Add flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with coconut milk in 2 additions, beating batter just to combine between additions.

4. Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in a bowl until soft peaks form. Be careful not to overbeat. To check done-ness, I lift the whisk and see if a soft peak forms and gently collapses back into the mixture. Gently fold egg white mixture into batter in 3 additions.

5. Pour batter into the lined cupcake pans until 3/4 filled. Bake in preheated oven for about 25 mins or until the cupcakes don't stick to a skewer passed through their middle.

6. Cool completely and frost if desired. I thought the cupcakes were a bit too plain so decided to whip up a very simple frosting with some mascarpone cheese I had in hand.

Mascarpone Frosting Recipe

Whisk together 6 tbsp mascarpone cheese, 4 tbsp milk, and 14 tbsp icing sugar. Adjust each of the ingredients until the frosting is of pouring consistency yet not too watery. Pour over completely cooled cupcakes and place some pomegranate seeds over the frosting before serving.

The cupcakes lasted me four days, refrigerated.