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| 'Roger's Red' Grape has great flavor! |
Mother
Nature produces an array of interesting and unusual products. Chemists, engineers, chefs and others continue
to be amazed and inspired by plants.
Break-through inventions are created every
year based on plant chemicals!
Some
plant products are nothing short of magical.
Among these are the chemicals that give plants their colors. Plant colors are a great way to introduce
children to the fascinating world of science; kids find the colors exciting and
utterly captivating.
Fortunately,
several color ‘experiments’ can be done using plants and equipment common
around the home. Cheap, simple and safe
are always good, especially in working with children. And when there’s a bit of
magic involved? Well, that’s the fun of
science!
Among
the most interesting plant colors are the reds and blues. These are produced by a set of plant
chemicals known as the anthocyanins (pronounced AN-tho-sigh-ANN-ins or an-tho-SIGH-uh-nins).
These are the chemicals that make red cabbage red, grapes purple and the
flowers of old-fashioned snowball bushes (Hydrangeas) turn blue or pink.
Anthocyanins
change color when exposed to mildly acidic conditions (vinegar; lemon juice) or
alkaline conditions (baking soda). In fact, they can be used as pH indicators:
they are pink in acidic solutions (pH < 7), purple in neutral
solutions (pH ~ 7), greenish-yellow in alkaline solutions (pH > 7), and
colorless in very alkaline solutions. [1]
Next time you buy a red cabbage, smash a bit of leaf and put a little
vinegar or baking soda dissolved in water on the juice. See if your kids can guess whether the test
solution is an acid or a base (alkali).
Wild and Concord purple grapes are a
good source of anthocyanins. We shared our tips for picking and preserving
wild (and other purple) grapes last month: http://mother-natures-backyard.blogspot.com/2016/08/california-gourmet-preserving-summer.html.
If you made grape juice - and still have
a little left – you may want to make some ‘Mother Nature’s Magic Grape
Cupcakes’. They are delish – and nearly
as easy as making a ‘box cake’. You may
want to make these cupcakes in other flavors as well; this is based on a really
nice, old-time recipe.
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| Mother Nature's Magic Grape Cupcakes |
But these cupcakes are truly
magical. Have the kids help make
them. Watch closely when you add the
grape juice to the batter. What happens
to the color? What color are the
cupcakes after they are baked? Are you
surprised? How do you explain what happened?
Mother Nature’s Magic
Grape Cupcakes
Ingredients
½ cup (1
stick) butter or margarine*, at room temperature
1 cup
sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ cups
flour
1 tsp.
baking soda
1 tsp.
baking powder
2 Tbsp. dry
milk powder
¼ tsp.
vanilla extract
1 Tbsp.
homemade wild grape extract **
½ cup plus
1 Tbsp. homemade wild grape juice (unsweetened is best) **
Directions
Preheat
oven to 350° F. Prepare cupcake tins
(either grease & flour or use paper liners). This recipe makes 12 regular
cupcakes; about 24-28 mini-cupcakes.
Cream butter until light and fluffy (an electric mixer makes this job
easy). Add sugar and continue beating 5
more minutes. Add eggs, one at a
time. Mix well after each addition. Sift together the flour, soda, baking powder
and dry milk powder. Add the dry
ingredients and the juice, alternately, stirring to mix and ending with the dry
ingredients. Watch for the magic as you
add the juice. Add the extracts and stir just to mix. The batter
will be a bit thicker than batter from a standard ‘box cake’.
Spoon
or pour batter into prepared cupcake tins, filling about 2/3 full. When you’re done, level the batter and remove
bubbles by dropping the tins on a countertop several times (just hold tins
about 4-5 inches above the counter, then drop the tins flat onto the countertop). Bake in a 350° F oven until done (toothpick
inserted in center comes out clean); about 12-15 minutes for mini-cupcakes;
15-20 minutes for standard cupcakes. Let
cool for 10 minutes; remove from tins and let cool completely. Check out the color! Frost with Magic Grape Frosting
(below). Enjoy!
* can substitute vegetable
shortening for half (e.g. ¼ cup shortening + ¼ cup butter/margarine)
** for instructions on how
to make homemade extracts and juice see: http://mother-natures-backyard.blogspot.com/2016/08/california-gourmet-preserving-summer.html The juice is unsweetened. It can be made from any wild or Concord type
(purple) grape. You might be able to
substitute a natural, unsweetened, commercial purple grape juice (will be
tasty, but I can’t guarantee the magic).
Mother Nature’s Magic
Grape Frosting
We
are often pressed for time and just modify vanilla frosting out of the
can. Pillsbury’s vanilla or any
vanilla/vanilla buttercream frosting will work just fine. Add 2-3 Tbsp. wild grape extract (see above)
to the frosting. Stir well. Then add
enough powdered sugar to make the frosting stiff enough to spread. Frost the cupcakes with the pastel purple
frosting. Enjoy!
If
you make a favorite vanilla frosting from scratch, that will work fine
too. Just add the grape extract and
extra powdered sugar to get the proper consistency.
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We encourage you to
send us your questions, comments and recipes (either comment below or e-mail to
us at : mothernaturesbackyard10@gmail.com
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