When I bake late at night I come up with some strange combinations.

And that is exactly what I was doing Saturday as my mom and I busily prepared food for my grandparents’ annual Sunday afternoon Labor Day weekend fish fry.

One of my absolute favorite snack foods is plain, air pop popcorn. I probably like it too much. Thank goodness Sam’s Club carries a 50 pound bag.

I saw an idea on another blog, The Baking Robot, to throw popcorn in a cupcake batter to add a fun factor. I like popcorn and I like fun, so I gave it a shot. I really like the result! The popcorn did not at all affect the texture and taste of the batter, and the raspberry jam buttercream I choose to pair with it (which I had made previously in the No-Bake Cocoa Brownies with Raspberry Jam Buttercream post) actually went well together. So popcorn, a sweet caramel-ish batter and raspberry jam buttercream are a great combination (or I wouldn’t have made a blog post about it).

Popcorn Cupcakes (makes 12)

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 c. light brown sugar, packed
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 & 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 & 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. milk
• 3 c. popped, plain, unsalted popcorn

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin tin with baking liners.
• In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add in eggs one at a time. Stir in vanilla extract.
• Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Add milk and stir until it’s completely mixed.
• Fold in three cups of popcorn gently. It’s also okay if the popcorn breaks into smaller pieces.
• Fill liners 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 15-18 minutes (it took me 17) or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center.
• Transfer to a rack and cool completely before adding frosting.

Raspberry Jam Buttercream

Ingredients

• 1 c. unsalted butter
• 1/2 c. seedless raspberry jam
• 16 oz. powdered sugar

Instructions

• Beat butter and jam together until creamy.
• Gradually add in powdered sugar until combined (optional-can add in 1 Tbs of milk if you find the frosting is too thick).
• Frost cool cupcakes with the buttercream.

These funky little cupcakes were well worth a try!