Bubble, sparkle and pop.

What’s another name for sparkling wine? Champagne! And according to the book, champagne + popcorn = awesome. I was thinking candied popcorn…but I’ve been busy with other things and all but forgot to play with the idea when the time of year came around.

Crunchy, boozy, popcorny!

Then! I remembered to check on the theme for this month’s Mystery Box Challenge. *GASP!* It’s popcorn! And if there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s put wine and other weird things in cupcakes!

See that shine!

So how do you make a popcorn-champagne cupcakes? I used my regular white cake recipe, replacing the milk with champagne (like ya do) and replacing one sixth of the flour with popcorn flour.

Popcorn flour?

Yeah, popcorn flour. You can buy it commercially or you can make your own by air-popping popcorn and grinding it with a food processor, high-powered blender or spice grinder (for small batches only), then sifting out the larger and kernelly pieces. It’s a lot like powdered styrofoam, in that it sticks to EVERYTHING and is super lightweight, so don’t sneeze!

Pop it in your mouth!

I think they turned out AWESOME, especially in bite-size. The cake is fruity, and the popcorn flour brings out the flavor of the butter. Speaking of butter, the frosting is a smooth and tasty champagne Swiss meringue buttercream. For textural contrast and extra sparkle, I added sugar in the raw on the frosting and topped them with crackly candied popcorn.*

If I were the type to host fancy New Year’s Eve parties, I’d absolutely serve these as an alternative to a toast at midnight. The champagne hits you first, then the crunchy popcorn and sweet sugar crystals. Buttery, boozy, snacky and sweet…sounds like all you could hope for in the new year.

The winner of January’s Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge will receive prizes from:

• Bake It Pretty; a $5 electronic gift card
• Beanilla; 3 Madagascar, 3 Mexican & 3 Indian vanilla beans
• ExoDesign; a wire whisk charm necklace
• Hello Hanna; a pack of Sweet Stands cupcake stands
• Miss Kitty Creations; a handmade cupcake charm of your choice
• Simply Caked; 600 brown greaseproof cupcake liners
• Sweet Cuppin Cakes; a prize pack worth $25
• Tundra Books; a selection 3 very sweet children’s books

Sparkly Popcorn-Champagne Cupcakes

First, Make the Cakes:

1. 1/4 cup butter
2. 3/4 cup sugar
3. 1/2 cup champagne (pour early so the bubbles dissipate, you want this for flavor not leavening)
4. 1/2 tsp vanilla
5. 1/2 + 1/3 cup AP flour (usually I’d use cake flour, but I wanted to make up for the lost gluten from the popcorn flour)
6. 1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp popcorn flour
7. 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
8. 1/4 tsp salt
9. 2 egg whites

Preheat the oven to 350F. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Combine the champagne and vanilla in a liquid measuring cup, set aside. Combine the flours, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl and whisk or sift together. Alternately add the liquid and dry mixtures in thirds to the creamed butter, scraping down the bowl between each addition. Once everything is fully combined, add the egg whites and beat on medium-high speed for about 2 minutes, until the batter is light and airy. Spoon into lined muffin tins, filling the liners 2/3 full. Bake 10-12 minutes for mini cupcakes, 15-20 for regular sized cupcakes. Cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted into the middle of one comes out dry (a couple clinging crumbs are ok, it’s a very fluffy sticky cake). Allow to cool fully before frosting.

Makes 50-60 miniature cupcakes, about 12 regular sized cupcakes.

Then, Make the Frosting:

1. 2 egg whites
2. 1/2 cup sugar
3. 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
4. 8 oz (1 cup/2 sticks) unsalted butter, soft and cut into 1 Tbsp chunks
5. 3 Tbsp champagne
6. 2 drops red gel food coloring
7. 1 drop yellow gel food coloring

Place the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar in the metal bowl of a stand mixer and place over a tall saucepan of simmering water (don’t let the bowl touch the water). Using the whisk attachment, whisk regularly until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is hot to the touch. Move to the mixer and whip to glossy stiff peaks, then switch to the paddle attachment and turn on medium-high. Add the butter gradually. If at any time the buttercream breaks, becoming soupy- or curdled-looking, turn up the mixer a little and let it go for a while until it comes back together, then turn it back down and keep adding butter until it is fully emulsified in and fluffy. Beat in the champagne gradually, then the food coloring.

Finally, Make the Popcorn:

1. 3-4 cups unseasoned air-popped popcorn
2. 1/3 cup sugar
3. 1/4 cup water
4. 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp corn syrup
5. Pinch salt
6. 1/4 tsp white vinegar

Spread the popcorn in an even layer on a Silpat-lined baking sheet. Place the rest of the ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, covering for a minute or two until the steam builds up on the sides of the pot and washes any crystals down the sides. Uncover and continue cooking to 290F. Once it reaches about 285F remove from heat and pour over the popcorn, then stir to cover until the popcorn is fairly evenly coated. Allow to cool and harden completely before attempting to break up.

On To Assembly!

1. Cupcakes
2. Buttercream
3. Sugar in the raw/Turbinado
4. Candied popcorn

Pipe the buttercream into “kisses” on top of each cupcake with a piping bag fitted with a large star tip. Sprinkle each kiss of frosting with raw sugar and place the candied popcorn on top (one piece for miniature cupcakes, three for regular-sized).

Serve immediately, or store the popcorn separately and add to the cupcakes shortly before serving – if you refrigerate the popcorn the sugar coating could get sticky.

*Usually I try to avoid threads from developing on candied popcorn when I make it, but in this case I think it looks great, like bubbles floating in a glass. To achieve the threads, keep stirring the popcorn for as long as you can after coating with the hot sugar.

Oh, and by the way, the above mentioned special book (What to Drink with What You Eat, if you didn’t click) is now available as an app!

That's, uh, not a maple leaf. It's a grape leaf. Just pretend, ok?

Muscat grapes, also known as muscadines, are big spheres of tasty juiciness. With a tart, tight skin and sweet, nearly gooey flesh, they’re almost grapier than grapes.

Oh magical little muscats.

The grapes come in both red and green varieties, with the reds generally being sweeter with fewer rock-hard (bitter if you accidentally bite them) seeds. I like the red ones as a little dessert but prefer the green in general for their more intense flavor.

Chewy and grapey.

Muscat wine is a common use for the grapes, which are hard to snack on as easily as table grapes due to their tough skin and lurking seediness (though a dedicated fruit lover like myself will have no issue eating them plain, as long as there is a place to spit the seeds). Up until I found the grapes fresh, however, I’d only experienced their flavor in a Japanese jelly candy. I decided to play off that general idea and came up with these.

Not as squishable as other jellies.

I had a couple sticks of agar agar hanging out in my pantry so I figured I’d try making my own muscat grape jelly candies – vegan, sugar free and almost fat free (completely fat free if you have a silicon mold!) I had never used agar agar before so I read up a bit and found that it’s some powerful stuff, and too much in a recipe will result in an unpleasant grainy texture when eaten (which explains the tremendously disappointing vegetarian Jello I once ate). I decided to use a ratio of 5% agar to fruit puree, though you could definitely get away with a little less – as low as 2 or 3% probably, though you’d have to be more careful when unmolding. Or just gel it in fancy glasses like Jello.

I did include green food coloring because the puree will oxidize and turn a little brownish very quickly. You can leave it out but your jellies may look a little sad.

Another thing to note is that since these are completely plant-based and naturally high in water, they will mold rapidly. Eat them within 2 or 3 days, and keep them wrapped tightly in plastic. You could get a few more days out of them by refrigerating, I’m sure.

Also, if you make these, for the love of all that is holy, line your strainer with cheesecloth. It’s no fun trying to scrub the grapey residue out of your poor abused strainer.

And finally, there is absolutely no reason why this is in grams, besides grams being the preferred measurement at school. My scale was still set to grams and I was too lazy to press the button once to switch it over. Just remember the ratio and you can use whatever unit of weight you like.

Behold my obelisk of plant matter!

Muscat Jellies

1. 300 g green muscat puree (thoroughly puree a couple cups of the grapes and strain well, pressing into the strainer with the back of a spoon to extrude all the moisture from the pulp)
2. 15 g agar agar (the clear stick kind)
3. A couple drops green food coloring

Prepare candy molds – if they are silicone, just set them out for use; if they are plastic, ceramic or any other material that is NOT non-stick, oil them lightly with cooking spray or a quick swab of neutral cooking oil. Cut the agar stick(s) into one inch chunks with scissors and place in a bowl of cold water, letting them soak for 5-10 minutes. Pour the puree into a large saucepan. Once the agar is sufficiently hydrated, squeeze the excess water from the chunks and add them to the pan. Cook, stirring gently, over low heat until the agar agar is completely dissolved. Add the food coloring and stir until it is completely incorporated. Remove from heat and immediately pour into prepared molds. Pop any large bubbles with a toothpick or via gently shaking the molds. Let cool and set up – it will take less than an hour. Once they are cool and firm to the touch, pop them out by bending the molds, if flexible. Some basic shapes, in non-flexible molds, will pop out with a little pushing back and forth. I had to use toothpicks to carefully poke around some corners on my leaves to loosen them but they came out pretty easily after that. Of course you can bypass all that fiddly nonsense by pouring the mixture into individual shotglasses or other glass serving vessel and serving like Jello.

These were quite tasty and the flavor came through really nicely – no spitting needed!

Since I had never worked with agar agar before and the instructions on the back of the package were garbled and/or in Japanese, I decided to treat it the way we do gelatin sheets in class – with a cold soak, squeeze and melt.

So purple...also violet!

My parents had a few clusters of adorable purpley violets in their front yard and let me take my pick. They’re definitely organic and safe to eat, though possibly not the more delicious variety…I don’t know anything about flowers. They do have a very faint purpley taste, though. Violets taste like purple!

So sparkly!

They seem pretty…sugared. So I think I did it right. I took 25-40 stemmed, cleaned and dried violets and brushed them with a mixture of 1 egg white and 1 Tbsp water (don’t dredge the flowers, or they’ll be too soggy and the sugar will just dissolve). Then I sprinkled ground sugar (about 1 cup, and you can see that I couldn’t grind mine as well as I’d like…I should get a pepper mill or something for it) liberally over the flowers and laid them out, stem side down on parchment paper to dry. Once they were dry and stiff I transferred them to a jar. EDIT: Let them dry at least 24 hours. Mine were not really dry and collapsed in on themselves in the jar. I don’t really care if they’re all crumpled, but if you’re sugaring them to top a cake or something you’ll want to let them dry for a while before trying to store, or just top the cake immediately. They’re definitely edible and sweet, though maybe not the most flavorful. I’ll wait and see if they improve with age.

In a sea of vodka!

I put all of the imperfect violets and loose petals (about 25-30 flowers) into a jar with 6 oz. of vodka. I don’t know if that will work, either. EDIT: Next morning and almost all the purple is gone from the flowers. I don’t know what that means.

This guy wanted to be alone at the bottom of the vodka. :(

But hey, free edible flowers are free edible flowers. I also sugared some mint leaves, which are stupid delicious, but didn’t take any pictures because I have plans for them. Mmm, minty plans.

They look so innocent, don't they?

One of the few sodas I do enjoy is ginger beer. Why ginger beer instead of ginger ale? Spiciness! I love the kick of a good ginger beer, and heck, I just really like ginger.

I knew I was going to need more than a little stale powdered ginger to give these cupcakes the bite I wanted, so I chopped up a bunch of the homemade candied ginger I pretty much always have on hand. That wasn’t going to be enough for me, though, so I added some ground white peppercorns and a pinch of cayenne. To make things EXTRA gingery, I used all ginger sugar: I reserved the sugar I had rolled the last batch of candied ginger in and ground out all the big clumps.

You put de lime in de ginger beer...

Jamaica is known for its ginger beer, and I decided to go with that and cut the spiciness with a smooth buttercream full of sour lime flavor. I also used brown sugar in the frosting to give a hint of molasses flavor.

I got a little creative with some of the frosting. Star tips always make me want to be creative!

Another thing about these cupcakes – they’re bite-sized. And the correct way to eat them is all at once. At first, you’ll taste the lime and butter as the frosting melts in your mouth, then soft, sweet cake with chewy little bits of ginger throughout. Finally, you’ll feel the heat in the back of your throat from the pepper and ginger. They’re Bites because they’re bite-sized and they bite back!

Although, if I made them again, I’d probably replace some (or all) of the milk with some nice dark rum.

Jamaican Ginger Beer Bites

Tasty ginger everywhere!

First, make some candied ginger. Reserve the syrup and sugar. Pour syrup into jars, seal and refrigerate for later use. Allow the sugar to dry, grind any large lumps with food processor or mortar & pestle.

Then, Make the Cakes:

1/4 cup unsalted butter, soft & in Tbsp

1/2 cup ginger sugar

1 cup cake flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 large knob fresh ginger, peeled

1/2 cup minus 2 Tbsp milk

2 egg whites

2 Tbsp chopped candied ginger

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp (10) ground white peppercorns

Pinch cayenne pepper

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Grate the fresh ginger and squeeze by handfuls into a clean bowl. You should get about 2 Tbsp; combine with milk in a liquid measure. Cream the butter and sugar in a stand mixer. Add the dry and wet mixtures into the creamed mixture alternately, by thirds. Stop the mixer and scrape it down (or not if you have one of those sweet scraper paddles). Turn the mixer on medium-high and add the egg whites. Beat until fluffy (5-10 seconds). Add spices all at once and quickly incorporate (5 seconds). Preheat the oven to 350. Carefully pour the batter into lined miniature muffin tins. Bake 10-12 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of one comes out clean, but not until the cupcakes are browned at all. Allow to cool completely before frosting. I generally let cupcakes rest overnight to allow the flavors to develop.

Then, Make the Frosting:

2 egg whites

1/2 cup brown sugar (I used light, you could try dark if you wanted more molasses flavor)

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

2 sticks unsalted butter, soft and cut into Tbsp

Zest & juice of 1 medium-large lime

1/2 tsp ground ginger

Sprinkles, if you want ‘em

Place the egg whites, cream of tartar and brown sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer and place over a saucepan of simmering water, whisking constantly for about 5 minutes, or until light and frothy. Immediately transfer to mixer and bead on high 2-3 minutes, until you have a stiff, glossy meringue. Switch to a paddle attachment and beat on medium-high. Add the butter one piece at a time, waiting for each to be fully incorporated before adding the next. If it gets curdled or isn’t fluffy and awesome, just let it mix for a while; eventually it’ll fix itself. Once the butter is all incorporated, mix in the lime and ginger. Place in a piping bag by thirds. Using a fun star tip, pipe the buttercream onto the cupcakes. Decorate with sprinkles and keep refrigerated.

About Iron Cupcake:

Our April ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:

• A creation by FRUITFLYPIE, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=16748
• a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6057281.
• a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
• PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice – sweet!

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com .

It almost looks healthy - look at all that green and those carrot-like shards of orange!

Though I haven’t begun to make the other two things yet, they are my projects for the next couple of days. This, however, is something I made before I left on my trip. I just put the elements together yesterday after getting home from the store (to buy things that I needed to make the upcoming stuff).

I like veggies, but this is good, too.

I know I said I wasn’t going to try making ice cream again until I could get an ice cream maker, but I had leftover egg yolks and just felt like playing with matcha.

Zesty, yummy and dainty. No, really, those are small scoops.

I also constantly have a small collection of flavored syrups in my fridge, since I really enjoy candying things. It’s fun! I actually candy ginger more for the ginger syrup than for the candied ginger itself now, though I do love hot, chewy little shards of candied ginger.

So many things I love in one dessert!

I’m always trying to come up with new ways to use the syrups – in marshmallows, drinks, I use ginger syrup to make a glaze/sauce for tofu stir fries…But I rarely use them straight-up. I happened to have both ginger and kumquat syrup on hand and knew they’d both go great with matcha ice cream, so I created this little sundae.

Though the first time I made candied ginger I used Alton Brown’s method, I’ve used this one since, because it actually results in a ginger syrup as opposed to a ginger water that needs sugar boiled into it. I never posted the recipe for candied kumquats because I just didn’t really like them candied as much as fresh, which is kind of a shame because the syrup is incredibly good. It’s not bitter at all (which is good, considering it’s a flavored sugar syrup), and has an earthy, floral quality that is absolutely delicious. I don’t know if you’d get different results using whole as opposed to sliced kumquats, but I’d slice them so you can de-seed them. There’s a recipe for candied kumquats on this page, along with lots of other kumquat recipes. The simple candied ones I made are in the left column, almost all the way down.

Matcha Ice Cream Sundae with Kumquats and Ginger

That's syrup, not water. The color in the syrup is hard to see in small quantities, but the flavor is definitely there.

First, Make the Ice Cream:

1 1/2 cups (whole) milk

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

5 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

1/8 tsp fine sea salt

1 Tbsp matcha powder

1/4 cup hot water

Heat the milk and cream in a medium saucepan over medium heat until small bubbles appear (do not allow it to boil). Immediately remove from heat and set aside. In a medium bowl, beat the yolks and gradually mix in the sugar and salt. Whisk for about 3 minutes, then slowly add the milk/cream mixture, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly for about 10 minutes until it is thickened.  Remove from heat and set aside. Whisk the matcha into the hot water until dissolved, then pour it into the custard and whisk until fully combined. Pour the custard through a sieve into a large bowl, cover with a kitchen towel and allow to cool to room temperature. Once it’s fully cooled, pour into an ice cream maker or freezer-safe container. Follow ice cream maker directions, or if not using a machine, stir thoroughly every 40 minutes until evenly frozen and scoopable.

To Make the Sundae:

3 small-medium scoops of matcha ice cream

2-3 Tbsp kumquat syrup

2-3 Tbsp ginger syrup

1-2 tsp finely chopped candied ginger

1 kumquat, pulp removed and sliced into thin strips

Arrange the ice cream scoops onto a chilled plate, drizzle with syrups. Arrange the kumquat strips on top of the ice cream and sprinkle with chopped candied ginger.

This will definitely wake up your tastebuds! The matcha provides a mild, earthy backdrop for the flowery kumquat syrup and zesty ginger, and the fresh kumquat provides a nice sour contrast.

I want an ice cream maker more than anything now, because though the ice cream turned out tasty (Z ate half the container when I was out the day after I made it), the ice crystals are way too big and the ice cream doesn’t come out as creamy as it should without the proper equipment.