This weekend I realized my dream by having a murder mystery party! My friend JT told me that she had a successful party with the Murder at the Four Deuces party kit. It's a 1920's themed party (but not for the youngins - it involves a brothel!) and has everything necessary to host a fun get together! It wasn't too difficult to arrange, although finding a night where 16 people were free was a little bit of a challenge...
My roommates and I decided to make it a pot luck due to the size of the party. My contribution was cupcakes (duh). I couldn't think of a good cake for the cupcakes. Alcoholic cupcakes sounded fun, but there is something about bootleg whiskey cupcakes that seems incredibly unappetizing. After scrapping an idea to make chocolate coconut cupcakes, I decided to go for vanilla cake with pomegranate frosting. Topped with pomegranate seeds, it made the cupcakes appear to have little jewels on them!
I used my go-to vanilla cupcake recipe for the base. It's just so.... good. And easy to make.
When I started planning this party months ago, I picked out some cupcake liners that I deemed appropriate for a 1920's themed party. I found the ones pictures below from Fancy Flours. Not only are they gorgeous and from Sweden (!), they are also grease-proof so they don't become translucent and lose their color after baking.
As for the frosting, I just used a little pomegranate juice! So easy.
Baa Baa Pomegranate Frosting - Makes enough to generously frost approximately 15 cupcakes
- 2 sticks butter, room temperature
- 4 cups confectioners' sugar
- 4 tablespoons pomegranate juice
- Cream the butter with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy in a large bowl. This should take a few minutes.
- Add the sugar one cup at a time. Beat with the electric mixer on medium-high speed. After two cups of sugar have been added, add the pomegranate juice.
- Continue to add the remaining 2 cups of sugar. Aerate the mixture on high speed until fluffy.
- You can always add more or less sugar or juice until you get the frosting until your liking.
I was tempted to eat all of the pomegranate seeds, but once I saw how good they looked on the cupcakes I was able to let them go.
People really enjoyed the cupcakes at the party! Here are a couple of pictures of people enjoying the cuppies:
It's not hard to see why Caroline won best costume
Jack, AKA Inspector Nutella, enjoying a cupcake before arresting the murderer