Cupcake Conspiracy | Slow as molasses

INDIANAPOLIS - When most people hear molasses they think of the olden days, when your great-greats were working the farm, or that scene from “To Kill A Mockingbird” when Scout calls out Walter Cunningham for pouring it all over his meat and vegetables.

But really, molasses is a timeless sweetener, one with depth and versatility.

Naturally gingerbread most likely comes to mind when discussing baking with molasses. You’ll never get the flavor or the moistness without it. It is crucial for a great gingerbread recipe.

And it was crucial in making the featured cupcake this week:
Triple Gingered Molasses Cupcakes with Royal Icing.

Cupcake recipe

I combined three forms of ginger – powdered, fresh and candied – for a ginger flavor blast. And the cup full of molasses I added just made the batch perfect. Ginger and molasses are like peanut butter and jelly – total food besties!

The royal icing made the whole thing come together, reminiscent of a true white icing-piped gingerbread cookie.

Royal Icing recipe

If I have not convinced you yet of the deliciousness of molasses, you will just have to try it out for yourself.

Molasses Facts and Tips:

• First off, what the heck IS molasses? According to TipNut.com , molasses is the product of sugar refining process.

• In the 1930s sugar prices skyrocketed. Molasses became the staple sweetener in American kitchens for many years.

• Cooking one of your great-grandmother’s recipes? Spring for a bottle of molasses. If you have been unable to get the same taste and quality of your “Mammaw’s home-cooking,” the molasses might just be the key ingredient you’ve been missing.

See recipes on my tumblr food blog

Twinkle VanWinkle was born in a small town in Mississippi. A life-long lover of music, media and food, she grew up following those three things along her path. She has almost 20 years of professional cooking under her apron strings, feeding thousands of friends, family and other folks while working in restaurants and bakeries in Oxford, Miss. She baked 300 apple pies for the “Oprah Winfrey Show” and appeared on “The Best Of...” in the same year. Along with producing dynamic entertainment content for LIN Media, she is a mother, musician and social media fanatic.

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