June Cupcake Hero Entry: Watermelon Cocktail Cupcakes with Cherry Vanilla Frosting

This month, the Cupcake Hero 'special' ingredient is Melon. I've never had honey dew, watermelon, or cantaloupe cupcakes, so I really had to think out of the box when it came to coming up with a melon-inspired recipe. Personally, I have to be in the mood for watermelon to really enjoy it (though it tastes yummy cold, I'm generally more of a honey dew fan), but because I admire every watermelon's fun pink color, I decided to go with it!

Watermelon has such a crisp and easily distinguishable flavor, I wasn't sure what to pair it with. It's great in fruit salads, so that was my inspiration for this month's melon challenge. I pureed fresh watermelon with maraschino cherries, then added a bit of lemon and orange zest to the mix. Because I wanted the cupcakes to have an intensely summery flavor, I also threw in some fruit cocktail juice to the batter.




The end result was a really moist and fruity cupcake with a bright orange color and lightly watermelony after-taste. Hence their other name, Sunshine Cupcakes, they taste like Summer in a cupcake. I topped them off with a homemade cherry and vanilla frosting. Instead of using plain old vanilla extract, I added a few tablespoons of this new sugary blend I recently added to my collection of baking spices - vanilla sugar. It smells ammmaaaazzing! Like your favorite candle...like a warm sugar cookie....like real vanilla! Soo delicious, it even tastes spectacular on toast.

I waited until the last minute to bake these cupcakes...and I waited until the last minute to do the Daring Bakers challenge, so sugary baked goods are all that you'll get to see on Flour Arrangements this weekend :)! But I do promise to cook up something savory soon! Expect another sweet post tomorrow :D!