Hey all,
A couple of questions...My niece is getting married next January and wants to incorporate Pomegranates in the food. I am looking for a pomegranate filling for the cake. Also, I have never really tried them so I am not sure of the taste but do you feel they would work well with the Dark Chocolate Sour Cream cake or would I be better off with something like a Champagne cake? Would it be better to have a puree or glaze to serve with the cake rather than putting it IN the cake filling? TIA for any help you can offer

Nobody? Come on I know someone out there can help me.

I love pomegranates. But I cannot imagine a filling. I'm curious to see if anyone has an answer for you.

Pomegranate is a VERY strong taste (very tangy -- I love it!) You might want to add a little pomegranate juice to the buttercream in lieu of water and see what kind of flavor that gives you.

I haven't used pomegranates before in caking, so my advice will be limited. But I love to eat them. I think dark chocolate will be better with them than champagne. To me, their taste is reminiscent of bing cherries, so think along those lines. I think a pomegranate-flavored filling could be delicious!

Using pomegranate arils themselves is tricky because they have a seed inside them. I think they are fun to eat, but they would be distracting used whole in a cake filling. So you'll need to work with some sort of glaze, juice or essence. Grenadine was originally pomegranate juice.

You can certainly get or make pomegranate juice, molasses and syrup. None of them are very sweet (or even good tasting) in my opinion, so I think you might just have to get some and start tasting and experimenting.

Good luck!

I've done some testing with poms but don't offer them because they are kind of a pain to work with (and expensive in my area). I didn't care much for the flavor by itself, but I crushed/strained them to remove the seeds, then added fresh raspberry puree (with seeds for texture) to cut some of the sour flavor, a bit of sugar for some sweetness then a bit to lemon juice to preserve the color. Was super tasty in buttercream and the color was fantastic. Goes great with chocolate cake.

Good luck!

J

"Perfect Puree" makes a delicious pomegranate concentrate. It's expensive, but you don't have to use much to get the flavor. You could use this to make a mousse filling (or any other straight pomegranate juice). A pomegranate juice could also be thickened with arrowroot and spead in a thin layer on the cake before you add the buttercream or other filling. Just don't try baking it in a white cake, the batter is a beautiful color and it has a nice taste, but it turns a wierd purple-y brown when you bake it. Guess how I know? It's either use the little "pod" things from a fresh pomegranate or juice. The fresh pomegranate would not be good in a cake, but they are good on a salad and in guacamole. I know it sounds wierd- but it's delicious! If a customer likes pomegranate, I'm guessing she would be the type to go for the mousse and a delicate white cake rather than something heavy like chocolate.

I love pomegranantes so you got me curious...I googles recipies and found a cheesecake with pomegranante topping on http://pomegranates.org/recipes.html...you might be able to use the topping as a filling for a cake. I also found one for a cake on http://homecooking.about.com. NOt sure what they taste like but you have time to give them a try.

What about pomegranate curd (like lemon curd, but with p-juice)? Or I bet you could make an amazing pomegranate SMBC. I actually vote for white or a least a lighter flavor cake--I think pomegranate would get lost on a chocolate cake.

Thanks everyone!
What I am finding is that people combine raspberry and poms alot so I think I will try adding pom juice to a raspberry sleeved filling and see how that tastes. The original cupcake my niece found with the pom seeds on them were green tea flavored. I am just not that into trendy flavors and for a wedding I want it to be something everyone will like. I am going to give the pom raspberry filling a shot with my DCSC and see how it goes. I will use my dark choc buttercream and let you all know how it turns out.

The pom wonderful site has a bunch of dessert recipes. They have a "pom velvet" cake that looks interesting. It may be worth checking out for those of us that love pomegranates.
Here's the link: http://www.pomwonderful.com/recipes/category/courses/desserts/

I'm not much help with the cake I'm afraid but just to add that poms and rose water (with a little sugar) is a really nice combination. Just thinking as I type... would a rosewater flavour cake and pom filling work?