Finally baked some cupcakes

So after all this cupcake talk and trying other places, I finally got around to making some! My friend Ashley and I made Cherry Almond Cupcakes. We topped them off with a cream cheese based icing with hints of cherry and amaretto :) MMMMMM!

For the cake part we followed Miss Cupcake Face's recipe.

Cherry Almond Cupcakes
Adapted from Southern Cakes
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, slightly softened

2 cups sugar
4 eggs

3 cups AP flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons almond extract

2 10 oz jars maraschino cherries (cut in half)

1 cups whole milk
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 12-cup cupcake pans with liners.In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, & salt.In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter & sugar until light & fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Add flour mixture, alternating with the milk & almond extract, add cherries. Fill cupcake pans 3/4 of the way full & bake for 15 - 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

For the icing we used Martha Stewart's Cream Cheese Butter Cream recipe and then added our own modifications.

Cream Cheese Butter Cream Frosting
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 (1-pound) box confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Place cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat until creamy, about 30 seconds.
With the mixer on low, slowly add sugar, scraping down the sides of the bowls as necessary. Add vanilla and increase mixer speed to medium. Blend until frosting is fluffy, about 1 minute.

Our modifications: For the cake, we had bought one 16oz. jar of cherries instead of the two 10 oz jars, so we cut the cherries into 1/4ths (instead of halves). Next time, I will add more cherries and I like to keep the cherries cut into 1/4ths. Then we soaked the cherries in about 2-3 tbls of amaretto. Next time, I want to soak them longer :) We also threw in a few splashes of the extra cherry juice. We baked the cupcakes in both regular and mini sized cupcake tins. For the icing, instead of vanilla we folded in a few splashes of the extra cherry juice, some amaretto, and 1 drop of pink food coloring. We added these ingredients to taste and not sure about the exact measurements, but you can make it to your liking. Then we made our own "piping bags" for the icing by putting them in ziploc bags and then cutting off a corner - note to self: do not put too much icing in the bag! We started icing them and then icing started coming out of the top of the bag while other parts of the bag started to tare. It got pretty messy (ahem...ASH). We topped the cupcakes with pink sugar crystals.

Result: We really loved this recipe! The cake turned out firm and moist. The frosting was smooth and creamy. We could not stop licking the bowls and spatulas (good thing we both went for a run before hand lol)! This recipe is very simple to make and great for spring (or anytime really!)

Any requests for our next cupcake?? <3 Cara Lee