I’ll be in Chicago during part of the week of Thanksgiving, which has all sorts of awesome places to go. This year, I’ll get to visit the Bleeding Heart Bakery and thanks to a groupon, be on an insane sugar rush. The establishment first came to my attention during the working title brouhaha of the cookbook associated with the bakery. Who You Callin’ Cupcake? had many interesting looking recipes, but there was one in there that I just knew I had to veganize for MoFo: BBQ Pulled Pork Cupcakes. This was going to be a piece of cake.
It started with this pulled jackfruit sandwich recipe via Chow Vegan.
Foreground: Jackfruit slathered in barbecue sauce, ready to be cooked. Background: As you can see, no Pandora this time. Yep, getting my recommended daily allowance of The Daily Show.
I cooked that for two hours, just to make sure it was nice and tender. Then the fruit got shredded and, when necessary, squished with forks:
Squish!
While I thought cornbread would make the most sense, I deferred to the original recipe and used the Basic Vanilla Cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World by Isa and Terry.
Ready to go in the oven. The batter tasted disconcertingly reminiscent of marshmallow fluff.
While they were baking, I shredded the remainder of the jackfruit. The part I found most daunting looking it over was the frosting. The original called for 2 cups of butter and a stand mixer. I cut that down to about 1/3 cup butter (Earth Balance) whipped with 1 tablespoon maple syrup and just spread it over the top of the cupcakes in a thin layer. Spread the reserved jackfruit on top and ta-da:
So, how did it taste? Surprisingly good. I barely noticed the jackfruit that had been folded into the batter, but the corn complimented the sweet cupcake well. The jackfruit I did notice made for a fun, tangy contrast. Even the meager amount of butter seemed gratuitous; a drizzle of maple syrup would have been fine.
Verdict: Initially off-putting and time consuming, but tasty. I likely wouldn’t do it again unless it was for an unconventional potluck.
Vaster Than Empires 
I love bbq jackfruit but I can’t imagine putting it into a cupcake. I’d put it in a fritter of some kind, though.
No, I don’t really recommend putting jackfruit in a cupcake. I think it would be great in a cornbread muffin. A fritter of some sort sounds good, too.
Interesting use for the bbq jackfruit, seems like it would go better with the cornbread. 🙂
Everything about this post blew my mind. I’ve never had jackfruit, so I can’t comment on that, but pulled pork cupcakes? You’re brave to try to veganize that.
I like jack fruit – I like cupcakes….I am intrigued!