Cherry Cupcakes

It has been a while since my last post... revision. Anyway, I will compensate by posting more than one recipe this week- we may be looking at a triple feature over this weekend...

In my last post- the White Russian Cupcakes, I wasn't totally satisfied with the texture of the cakes, but these are exactly what I was yearning for. I will usually favour a simple yellow cupcake, nice and springy and light, over a more heavily-flavoured dense cupcake, including chocolate- they seem to defeat the point of a cupcake. These cupcakes have a lovely taste of almond throughout the sponge, with sweet maraschino cherries folded in. I found this recipe from the Always With Butter blog and love it.

Cherry Cupcakes

Makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients: 

225g unsalted butter

400g caster sugar

4 eggs, separated

240ml milk

¼tsp almond extract

480g plain flour

3tsp baking powder

1tsp salt

4 tbsp maraschino cherry juice

180g maraschino cherry halves 

Vanilla Buttercream:

225g unsalted butter

350g icing sugar

½tsp salt 

4tbsp vanilla extract

4tbsp milk 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven the 180C/350F/gas mark 4, and line a couple of muffin trays with cupcake cases.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy then add the egg yolks and continue beating until it is fully amalgamated.

3. Add the almond extract and sift in about a third of the dry ingredients, then add about a third of the milk, alternating until all has been added and evenly combined.

4. In a separate clean, dry bowl, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold into the rest of the cake mixture. Fold in the cherry-halves and juice.

5. Bake for about 18-22 minutes in the centre of the oven, or until the tops are bouncy and a skewer inserted through the middle of the cake comes out clean. Leave in the trays for about 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

6. For the buttercream, sift the icing sugar into the butter and cream together until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla, salt and half the milk. As required, sift in additional sugar or milk to required consistency.