Pomegranate Jam Filled Cupcakes With Pomegrante Chantilly

In 1958, a pomegranate was foreign to my young eyes. My teacher had just finished reading the myth about Persephone. the beautiful Greek goddesses. I had sat spellbound listening to how she had been abducted by Hades, the lord of the dead. His love for Persephone was so great he had tricked her into eating a pomegranate seed, thus binding her to the Underworld.

But Demeter, Persephone's mother, mourned for her daughter. And her anguish blighted the earth. Zeus finally sent Hermes to reclaim the girl. Before Hades would give her up, he struck up a bargain: Persephone would spend six months with him, six with her mother.

My teacher lifted a strange fruit. "This is a pomegranate."

The class oohed and ahhed, because most of us had never seen anything more exotic than a banana. And we watched as she cut it in two halves. Seeds? It was loaded with luscious looking red seeds. She handed the fruit to a person in the front row." Pass them around and everyone take a few seeds."

When it finally reached me, I ran my fingers over its outside speckled red surface. Crimson juice dripped from the fruit, staining my fingers pink. I plucked out several seeds and popped them in my mouth. Just like Persephone, I was now bound forever to this strange new fruit.

Ingredients for Cupcake Batter:
1 box white cake mix
1 (3 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding
4 eggs
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup oil

Directions:
1. Line cupcake tin with paper liners. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water and oil together. Blend till smooth. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Ingredients for Pomegranate Jam:
1 medium Braeburn apple
1 & 1/2 cups POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice
1/4 cup granulated sugar
12 fresh or frozen cranberries

Directions:
1. Grate enough of the apple (including the peel) to yield 3/4 cup. In a medium saucepan, bring the grated apple, pomegranate juice, sugar and cranberries to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer, covered until the apple is softened and the mixture has thickened a little, about 10 minutes. Uncover and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally at first and then constantly toward the end, until the liquid has evaporated and the mixture is reduce to 3/4 cup, about 5 minutes.

2. With a rubber spatula, press the pulp through a medium-mesh strainer into a bowl until you can't get any more juice out of the pulp. Scrape all the juice clinging to the bottom of the strainer into the bowl and discard the pulp in the strainer.

Ingredients for Pomegranate Chantilly:
1/2 cup pomegranate juice
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions:
1. Pour pomegranate juice into saucepan, simmer until reduced down to 1/4 cup. Set aside to cool.

2. Cut a small cone shape in each cupcake, remove and then spoon about 1 teaspoon of pomegranate jam into hole. Replace cupcake cone.

3. Pour heavy cream in a large bowl. Whip until soft peaks form. Add confectioners' sugar and cooled pomegranate juice. Whip until you have stiff peaks. Pipe onto cupcakes.