14 days of recipes for Valentine’s Day: Day 6 POM Velvet Cupcakes

No matter if you’re coupled up or single, we’re pretty sure you’ll still be hungry for some sweet treats no matter if you choose to celebrate the love-filled holiday or not. Who would pass up all that chocolate? Not us.

Throughout the 14 days leading up to the big day of hearts, kisses, and cupid, we’ll share a mix of recipes of food and cocktails appropriate for the holiday. It’s up to you if you want to share or not!
For today’s recipe, we’re sharing the ingredients for POM Velvet Cupcakes with POM Cream Cheese Frosting for a sweet Valentine’s Day treat.

POM Wonderful juice is available in a variety of flavors (it also comes in a light version, POM Lite), has four whole pomegranates in every bottle, and is sold at grocery stores nationwide.

DAY 6: POM Velvet Cupcakes with POM Cream Cheese Frosting

*Recipe courtesy of POM Wonderful.

Time to Table: 35 Minutes Prep, 20-25 Minutes Baking and 20 Minutes Cooling. Servings: 30 regular cupcakes

POM Velvet Cupcake with POM Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

POM Cream Cheese Frosting:
Juice from 3-4 large POM Wonderful Pomegranates*, or 1-1/2 cups POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice
1 cup arils from 1-2 large POM Wonderful Pomegranates or POM POMS fresh pomegranate arils
4 oz. soft unsalted butter
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
14 oz. powdered sugar

POM Velvet Cupcakes:
Juice from 6-9 large POM Wonderful Pomegranates*, or 2-1/2 cups POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice
16 oz. granulated sugar
12 oz. soft unsalted butter (3 sticks
4 ea large eggs
1-1/2 cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
15 oz. all-purpose flour
1-1/2 oz. cocoa powder
3/4 oz. baking soda
pinch salt
1/4 cup heavy cream

Preparation:

POM Cream Cheese Frosting:
Prepare fresh pomegranate juice*, score 1-2 fresh pomegranates and place in a bowl of water, break open the pomegranates under water to free the arils (seed sacs), the arils will sink to the bottom of the bowl and the membrane will float to the top, sieve and put the arils in a separate bowl. Reserve 1 cup of the arils from fruit and set aside, (refrigerate or freeze remaining arils for another use), reduce the pomegranate juice, over low heat, down to 3 fl. oz. Allow to cool. 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, turn the speed down to low and slowly add in the powdered sugar and the pomegranate juice reduction, mix until the sugar is fully combined, remove icing from the mixer and place into a piping bag with a round or star tip.

POM Velvet Cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350F, reduce the pomegranate juice, over low heat, down to 1/2 cup, place sugar and soft butter in the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream on medium-high speed, until the mixture is pale yellow and fluffy, turn the speed down to low and add the eggs in one at a time, in a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk, pomegranate juice reduction, white vinegar and vanilla extract, and then slowly add half of this to the mixer, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt, and then sift at least two times until well mixed, add half of this to the mixer, add the remaining half of the liquids to the mixer, and then the remaining dry ingredients, finish off with the heavy cream, beat just until combined, place cupcake liners into cupcake pan, and using a spoon, fill with cake batter until it is just about 3/4 full, bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, allow the pan to cool slightly, and then remove cupcakes to a wire rack to cool fully, once the cupcakes are cooled completely, they can be iced with the pomegranate cream cheese frosting and topped with fresh pomegranate arils.

To learn more about POM Wonderful, visit pomwonderful.com.