Pomegranate Spice Cake

A slice of the cake!

Hi everyone!

Though really there is no “everyone” yet. It’s really just me.

Or maybe you’re someone who got lost on Google while searching for something like cats, and eventually stumbled here because cats maybe like pomegranates, and it says “pomegranate” in the title and you thought I might mention feline eating habits.

Let me send you on your way right now because I don’t intend to talk much about a cat’s diet. Unless you really are a cat. Do you like Pomegranate Spice Cake? Do you like cakes at all? Gosh, I have so much to ask you…

But in the unlikely case that you are a human reading this, let me get to the point.

Have you ever had a dream where you are doing something, say you are a cat perusing Google for pomegranates, and you know you are looking at Google and you know that you are a cat, but nowhere in the dream did someone walk up to you and say, “Yo, Mittens, could you stop hogging the computer?” You just know that you are a cat.

Well, I had a dream a few nights ago that I was eating pomegranate cake. I had never even heard of this thing before, I didn’t even know it existed. When I woke up, I knew I had to look for a recipe. I was avoiding my destiny, my fate, if I didn’t do this.

So I searched the lovely Internet 10 times over, and let me tell you, the pickins’  were tough. But I found a great recipe on the POM website, and it even came with a lemon frosting recipe. They call it POM Spice Tea Cake, but come on, tomato tomahto potato potahto, right?

Enjoy, dears!

POM Spice Tea Cake by POM Wonderful

Time to Table: 25 Minutes Prep and 50 Minutes Baking

Servings: one 10-inch Bundt cake and 1 1/2 cups frosting

Ingredients:
Cake
Juice from 2 POM Wonderful Pomegranates*, or 1/2 cup POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate Juice
1/2 cup arils from 1 POM Wonderful Pomegranate or POM POMS fresh pomegranate arils
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup shortening
3 large eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

Lemon Frosting
4 tablespoons lemon juice
4 tablespoons butter
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Preparation:
Cake:
Score 1 fresh pomegranate and place in a bowl of water. Break open the pomegranate underwater to free the arils (seed sacs). The arils will sink to the bottom of the bowl and the membrane will float to the top. Sieve and put the arils in a separate bowl. Reserve 1/2 cup of the arils from fruit and set aside. (Refrigerate or freeze remaining arils for another use.)
Prepare fresh pomegranate juice.*
Preheat oven to 350ºF.
In a mixer, cream together sugar, shortening and eggs (batter should be slightly lumpy).
Add pomegranate juice and milk; beat for 2 minutes.
Sift together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, nutmeg, cloves and salt.
Add flour mixture to the creamed sugar and shortening mixture. Mix to combine.
Pour into greased Bundt pan.
Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until cake tester inserted into cake comes out clean and free of crumbs.
Let cool. Frost with lemon frosting and decorate with arils.

Lemon Frosting:
Cream lemon juice and butter together.
Add powdered sugar and beat to a spreading consistency. Thin with water if necessary.

* For 1 cup of juice, cut 2-3 POM Wonderful Pomegranates in half and juice them with a citrus reamer or juicer. Pour mixture through a cheesecloth-lined strainer or sieve. Set the juice aside.

What’s the weirdest dream you’ve ever had? Care to share in the comments below? (I LOVE hearing about other people’s dreams. We have the craziest imaginations in our sleep.)