Who Loves Orange Soda?

My goal for today was to make Halloween Cupcake #2. It didn't work out like that. What I ended up with was a plain (yet very tasty) cupcake that I covered in a frosting made from strawberry preserves (which was only okay).

What I was planning on doing was replacing the orange concentrate of those previously attempted orange cupcakes with orange soda to see what would happen. And what happened? Not much. The cupcakes came out very moist and rose a bit more (which I attribute to my spanking new baking powder), but they retained neither the taste nor the color of the soda. As far as I can tell, adding water would have gotten the same result.

Anywho, I had these cake flavored cakes staring me in the face, and I could have easily turned them into Halloweenies, but instead I chose to make a frosting out of jelly. As it turned out, I had no jelly, but the preserves worked fine.

I should make a note right about here. I'm not exactly one with baking terminology, especially when it comes to frosting. In this instance, I'm using the term frosting, even though I have a sneaking suspicion that it's an un-peaked meringue. I honestly have no idea. Do I care? Yes, I do, and I'm (sort of) learning, okay? Okay.

So back to jelly. I only did a quick search for a jelly frosting, and found one recipe repeated in several places. It was simple and didn't require anything I didn't have. Here it is:

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Jelly Frosting:

1/2 cup frosting
1 unbeaten egg white
2 tbsp sugar
pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients in the top of a double boiler. Cook over boiling water, beating constantly until stiff peaks form. Remove from heat. Beat until it reaches spreading consistency.

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To me, it tastes just like a fluffy, less sticky version of jelly. It's what I expected and it's what I got. I frosted 15 cupcakes and had some leftover, but I don't think I put enough on. The result is an all-around plain cupcake.