Cupcake made of seaweed and durian

MANILA, Philippines - Seaweed and durian fruit, baked together, make a nutritious cupcake.

The food item was the product of a research project done by Arlyn Omboy, Graciela Caballero, Milagros Subaldo, Dr. Nila Nanette Revulla, and Dr. Delia Grace Bacaltos of the Southern Philippines Agribusiness and Marine and Aquatic School of Techonology (SPAMAST) in Digos City (Davao del Norte).

The seaweed-durian cupcake technology was among the finalists in the 2010 Aquatic Technology Competition and Marketplace (ATCOM) sponsored by the Los Baños-based Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development (DOST-PCAMRD).

The seaweed-durian cupcake, a bakery product made from seaweed powder with processed durian jam, uses as raw material locally available Eucheuma spinosum and durian, an exotic fruit “that smells like hell but tastes like heaven.”

“Making seaweed-durian pastry follows the usual baking process for bread and pastry,” the researchers said.

The cupcake's shelf life is five days.

In a consumers' feedback evaluation done by the researchers, the majority of the respondents from Digos City and neighboring towns rated the cupcake as “most acceptable.”

Through the support of the Davao Industry Cluster Capacity Enhancement Project (DICCEP) sponsored by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)-Region 11, the technology was further improved and even extended to various seaweed-growing communities in the Island Garden City of Samal and Puntao Biao, Cogon, Digos City.

Arrangements are being made with the DTI and Department of Education (DepEd) for the display of the cupcake in ‘Pasalubong’ centers and school canteens.