Cupcake Test 14, "Cherry Almond Cupcakes"

Cherries and almonds just seem to go together.  If you take a google across the web, there are cupcakes, biscotti, scones, cakes, tarts, slumps, clafouties, pies, cookies, and just about any other type of baked goodie you can think of made with a combination of cherries and almonds.  And that just scratches the surface. 

These particular cupcakes are from Better Homes & Gardens, a link provided by the BtB.  It's a buttermilk cupcake with maraschino cherries and almond goodness.

Dark, Okay, Slumpy

Process notes:  I made the cupcake recipe (almost) straight up.  The only change I made was instead of putting a half cherry in the top of each cupcake, I roughly chopped 2 dozen cherries and stirred them into the batter before baking.  This is the first time I have had troubles with my oven baking unevenly.  One side of the trays of cupcakes were darker brown, and the other end of the tray slumped terribly due to raw batter when it was removed from the oven.  I'll be sure to turn my trays half-way through baking from now on.

I made both the almond frosting and the cherry frosting, straight from the recipe.  I put both frostings into one piping bag, hoping for a random striping when I frosted the cupcakes.  Evidently, I didn't do too well at that either, however, I do like the delicate shading when both frostings are present.

I had the extra large Costco sized jar of maraschino cherries, and it was less than half full by the time I had decorated the cupcakes.

Tasting Notes:  Me - Almond = Yum.  Cherry = Yum.  Almond + Cherry = Yummy!  I liked the cherries folded into the batter.  I think the cupcakes were delicately flavored with almond, and if it weren't for the bits of cherry in them, you wouldn't taste the cherry at all.  The cherry juice made for a lovely colored cupcake, but I don't know that it added much flavor to either the cupcake or the frosting.  The almond frosting was mmmmm wonderful.  If there is such a thing as cherry extract, it might be a good thing to add a smidge of that to both the frosting and the cupcake batter to boost the cherry flavor. No more than 1/2 a teaspoon in each though.  All in all, lovely, festive, and tasty too.

Mark - Although maraschino cherries are not his favorite, they were a nice counterpoint to the almond flavor found in the cupcakes and in the frosting.  Again with the "Yum!"