I decided to make watermelon cupcakes this time and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that no one else has the same idea! I decided to make vanilla chocolate chip cupcakes colored pink to represent the inside. To add more flavor I filled them with melon pudding and topped it off with watermelon buttercream.
Filling
Make the filling first and put it in the fridge to set before starting on the cake
I didn't use these flavors but I used one Jell-O pudding and one Jell-O. A picture of 2 brown packets wouldn't be very interesting.
Since I knew the theme far enough in advance my mom sent me a packet of Vanilla Jell-O pudding and one pack of Melon Jell-O. She took the packets out of the box so it could fit in the envelope.
Make the pudding according to the directions on the pack (mix contents with 2 cups cold milk) once combined add the entire contents of the melon Jell-O this will give the pudding a nice melon flavor.
This made enough to fill about 100 cupcakes. I only used a small amount.
Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
Adapted from Martha Stewart Cupcakes (makes 30 cupcakes)
Ingredients
3 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
4 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbs vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tbs milk
1/2 cup and 6 tbs unsalted butter at room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
5 large egg whites
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
pink or red food coloring
1. Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C. Line muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, salt. Stir the vanilla and milk together in a jug.
2. With an electric mixer on medium high speed, cream butter until smooth. Adding the sugar in a steady stream, beat until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk mixture, and beating until just combined after each. Add the food coloring.
The batter will be thick before the egg whites are added
3. In another bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold one-third of the egg whites into the batter to lighten. Gently fold in the remaining whites until just combined.
Fold the chocolate chips into the batter.
I used 2 bags of these chocolate chips. I couldn't find any plain chocolate ones.
4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester comes out clean and the tops are springy, about 22 minutes.
Pudding Center
1. Take the pudding made at the beginning from the fridge and give it a good stir. For some reason that escapes me now I didn't take any pictures of this step.
2. Once the cupcakes are completley cooled carefully using a knife in a circular motion cut a cone shaped hole in the center of the cake and spoon the pudding in (not necessary to pipe) and then put the cake back on top. I usually trim the cone part off so the pudding doesn't squish out the top
3. Ice the cake as per usual. You won't be able to see the cut on top.
Watermelon Buttercream
Adapted from Martha Stewart Cupcakes
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter at room temperature
1 pounds icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
watermelon flavor vial
Green gel food coloring
I was lucky enough to find this on my last visit to the US at a cooking store. I used the whole thing (it's a really tiny bottle of super concentrated flavor)
1. With an electric mixer, beat the butter on medium-high until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes.
2. Reduce speed to medium. Add the icing sugar ½ cup at a time, beating after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as needed; after every two additions, raise speed to high and beat 10 seconds to aerate the frosting, then return to medium. This should take about 5 minutes. Frosting will be pale and fluffy.
3. Add vanilla and flavor vial, and beat until frosting is smooth, add small amount of green gel food coloring to achieve the shade of green desired, and beat until color shows through.
I made my frosting a pale green to go with the pink color of the cake
UPDATE: My brain must be made of pudding because over a week after I posted this I didn't realize until someone pointed out to me that I totally skipped adding the pudding! I've added it to the correct part of the recipe now.
