cupcakes...

Have you ever tried to come up with a new and unique cup cake recipe? i have. i mean, the basics are there, you need flour sugar egg etc. But i wanted rock melon (cantaloupe) and cinnamon cupcakes.
my first advice to anyone else - don't do it.
the flavour of rock melon is too fragile to be put against anything else and stand a chance to shine. I made some awesome cup cakes, but if it had been for iron chef i would have been voted poorly for not highlighting the theme ingredient...
here is what i ended up deciding was the better attempt...

Rockmellon and cinnamon cupcakes
makes about 24 large.
4 cups-ish of rock melon - finely chopped
2 cups of sugar
put these in a bowl in the fridge overnight.
2/3 cups vegetable oil - add to the rock melon
4 egg whites - beat to soft peaks and add to the mix.
3 cups plain flour
1.5 teaspoon (t) bi-carb soda
1t salt
1t cinnamon
sift these into the wet stuff.
half to 3/4 fill the patty pans (i used muffin size). put into a 180C oven. after 15 mins rotate them in the oven and cook for about 15 mins more. check by sticking a tooth pick in. if it comes out clean they are done!

Now these are tasty cupcakes, but they are not the flavour i was after.. when i made some the following week i went to a lot of effort to enhance the flavour, to little effect, so i woun't bore you with the details.
as for icing, i used pureed rock melon and icing sugar and cinnamon. it smelled like rock melon, but tasted like icing...